DENVER – With eight losses over the span of a week, the MSU Denver softball program has certainly seen better days.
 
But that doesn't mean better days aren't ahead, too.
 
And it could start as soon as this weekend, when the Roadrunners get back in action with a four-game series against Colorado State University-Pueblo. Doubleheaders at the Regency Athletic Complex are scheduled for Saturday at noon and Sunday at 11 a.m.
 
MSU Denver's week of discontent actually spread over eight days. After entering games of March 10 in first place in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, the Roadrunners lost to both New Mexico Highlands and the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.
 
Then, nationally-ranked West Texas A&M (No. 9 in Division II at the time), came in and swept a midweek non-conference doubleheader. Next came 17^th-ranked Colorado Mesa, the defending RMAC champions. And, while all four games were competitive, the Mavericks won them all, capped by a doubleheader sweep on March 17.
 
"It was a hard week, a tough week," Metropolitan State University of Denver coach Annie Van Wetzinga said. "But in the grand scheme of things, it was only one week of the season. And if Mesa is the top team in our conference, then I think we can do pretty well. We can turn this around. And, again, if they are the top team in our conference, there's no one we should be afraid of going into the conference tournament. Then it's anybody's ball game."
 
MSU Denver (11-17 overall) has slipped to a seventh-place tie in the league at 7-7. CSU-Pueblo is 4-17 overall and 3-14 in league play.
 
"I think they are frustrated, but they're sticking together, which is really important," Van Wetzinga said of her players. "It's still about us looking inward and focusing on what we're bringing to the field."
 
The Roadrunners are looking to have good pitching, good defense and timely hitting in order to get back on track. They actually outhit Mesa in two of the four games and had a 32-31 advantage in hits for the series.
 
"It's also about scoring runs," Van Wetzinga said. "We need to have more productive outs and hit more balls hard. That puts them on their heels a little bit, and it takes stress off our pitchers. We just need to have a higher number of quality at-bats. And we need key hits. Not just hits, but key hits."
 
The key to coming through in clutch moments is often to stop thinking about coming through in clutch moments.
 
"I think we're trying to do too much, thinking more outcome-based instead of just being focused in the moment and focused on what we are capable of doing and not worrying about a negative outcome," Van Wetzinga said.
 
Though the ERA of the MSU Denver pitching staff has gone up over the past week, the combination of Darby McGhee (Camarillo, Calif./Adolfo Camarillo), Julia Heitz (Queen Creek, Ariz./Queen Creek), Kylee Burnside (Idaho Falls, Idaho/Skyline) and Destinee Lopez (La Verne, Calif./Bonita) did well to keep the Roadrunners in games, particularly against Mesa.
 
"We're still giving up a few too many free bases, but considering the last two teams we've faced, the kind of offensive numbers they have – we could be better as a pitching staff, but they all fought and had really good composure considering the situations they were in," Van Wetzinga said. "That's huge. A lot of teams would love to have just one pitcher like that, and we have four who were composed, working hard and trying to give us a chance to win games."