In their first meeting against Tennessee State, the Hilltopper softball team blanked the Lady Tigers 10-0 at the Frost Classic in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Tennessee State is only 6-22 for the season, but their unimpressive record isn’t something head coach Leslie Phelan thinks about.

“I’m more concerned about how we play, not who we play,” she said.

Since they’ve been hit by the injury bug in midseason, Phelan is focusing on what needs to be improved.

“We must find consistency in our lineup,” she said. “Hopefully we’ll find it where we have pitching, hitting and defense all together. We also have to minimize throwing errors because they’ve been big factors in our losses.”

If the Hilltoppers match their performance in their last meeting with the Lady Tigers, then there isn’t much to worry about.

Western scored nine runs in the fourth inning alone, with help from hard-hitting junior Riley Garcia, who had two hits, two runs, and batted in two players.

But those stats aren’t too important to Garcia.

“I don’t try to match any performance – I just try to go out there and try to do the best that I can,” Garcia said.

First-year-pitcher Adrienne Lathrop allowed just two hits, while striking out four and walking none.

Even with the continuous progress from other players, Phelan refuses to overlook the struggling Tennessee State team. “They’ve only won six games, but (they won) three in their conference against decent teams,” Phelan said.

Sophomore Shelly Floyd isn’t counting out Tennessee State, either.

“No games are easy, but as long as we’re mentally tough, we can make it easy (for us),” Floyd said. “But they’re the type of team that will help boost our confidence to prepare us for the conference.”

Reach Amber North at [email protected].