Lakeland’s women’s softball team spent their Spring Break in Tucson, Arizona where they played ten games in the Tucson Invitational. The team left for Arizona on Mar. 10 and returned on Mar. 17. The Muskies finished the break with a 3-7 record.

Sophomore Chelsea Gile and junior Heather Haeflinger led the Muskies with nine hits each while junior McKenna Wenzel led the team with nine RBIs.

“Many of the losses we had we due to many errors in one or two innings and we watched too many pitches at the plate,” Haeflinger said. “To be successful this season we need to keep our errors low, not leave runners stranded on base, and put together strings of hits.”

Junior pitcher Erin Henk shouldered a majority of the pitching responsibilities and was the winning pitcher in all three of Lakeland’s victories.

“Overall, we were patient at the plate and made some key plays,” Henk said. “If we work as a team and communicate this season we can be very successful.”

Offensively, the Muskies had 66 hits, including14 doubles. But defensively they gave up 81 runs on 112 hits.

“Team-wise we cut down the number of times we struck out by 20 and we walked 20 fewer batters than we did last spring break,” Softball Coach Chad Buchmann said. “We also had 15 more hits than last spring break, so we are moving in the right direction.”

The Muskies open play in the Northern Athletics Conference Mar. 28 at home against Alverno College in a doubleheader.