Softball coach Kristin Johnson said that games in cold weather can become more of a mental block than a physical challenge.

“Both sides are in the same situation,” Johnson said. “So then it becomes are you prepared mentally to be able to handle that, or are you going to use that as an excuse for doing poorly.”

Captain, senior Madison Mcintosh, said that the weather has caused a lack of realistic outdoor practices which lead to an unprepared team.

“We’ve had one game but it was really rough because we haven’t had any experience outside,” Mcintosh said.

Sophomore Caitlin Seaman said that the weather causes indoor practices that don’t replicate outdoor games.

“The outfielders can’t get much work because they can’t see the ball coming off the bat so they can’t get good reps,” Seaman said.

Johnson is thankful that domes are in high demand because that means the schools with more funding can’t necessarily practice in a more game-like setting.

“You’ve got baseball and softball — you got all the sports that want to get in there so a lot of them aren’t actually on that turf they’re sitting in a gym, too,” Johnson said.

Seaman said that rescheduled games may mean two games in one day which can cause less strength while playing.

“We might lose some that we could’ve won because we have doubleheaders and we don’t have a ton of pitchers that can pitch,” Seaman said.”It’s hard for pitchers to pitch two games back to back, so that might result in more loses.”

Macintosh said that the cold makes playing a game with good technique a lot harder especially for the pitchers.

“Your hands feel freezing so then it’s hard to throw the ball and pitch,” Macintosh said. “During cold games pitchers have a hard time hitting their spots and can’t pitch as fast.”

Park softball will have its next game against Bloomington Kennedy 4:30 p.m. April 18 at Kelly Fields.