The Georgetown softball team is on the road again, this time taking their bats to Wilmington, N.C., for the succinctly-named UNC Wilmington Landfall Park Hampton Inn & Suites Invitational.

The Hoyas will play all weekend, facing the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, UNC-Wilmington and St. Joseph’s.

In the second week of the team’s 2015 campaign, Georgetown has already played four games and will play five more this weekend, a small fraction of the 57 games it has scheduled for the season. This tournament format, with so many games packed into one weekend combined with traveling, can take its toll.

“It’s really a grind, and so often you’ll be at the field until 6 p.m., you go and eat, you go to bed and you get up and do it all over again,” Head Coach Pat Conlan said. “It takes a lot to make sure that you’re getting up emotionally for every game but you’re preparing yourself physically for that grind of a long season.”

Unlike many sports, softball always plays in either a tournament or a series format, meaning that on weekends they’ll have at least three games, if not more. In spite of the physical and emotional burdens their schedule can impose, there is a bright side to this style of competition.

“The days are long,” Conlan said. “[But] the great thing about tournaments is that you get a wide variety of teams, and the other thing, too, is that you get many teams that are in very similar situations as us — colder weather schools, outside for the first time.”

The cold does have an impact on this type of outdoor sport; the Hoyas are often forced to practice indoors and on turf. In fact, their first opportunity to play on real dirt came in their season opener last weekend.

“It was our first time on dirt, really, so it was kind of hard,” senior pitcher Megan Hyson said. “Turf and dirt are completely different because [turf] never gives you that nice hop that you really want.”

Many of the teams at these early tournaments come with the same problems, which puts them all on more of an even playing field.  The Hoyas actually have a leg up over their competitors, as UNC-Wilmington and St. Joseph’s have not played games yet and UMBC is still seeking its first win, but Conlan doesn’t think about any advantage that might give her squad.

“We’re more focused on what we’re going to do, and I think that’s kind of always been our philosophy,” Conlan said. “If we can continue the good offensive output, get the strong pitching we’ve received from our seniors and clean up the defense, it doesn’t matter who we face or how many games they have or how many wins, we’re going to be in a good situation.”

The Hoyas saw strong offensive production in their first weekend out, scoring 27 runs over four games and recording four homeruns, two of which came from senior Sophia Gargicevich-Almeida. Conlan attributed this production to off-season training.

“One thing that we saw that we don’t normally see this early in the year was that our bats were really alive, so that was fun to see and I think that that is an indication of how we practiced this preseason,” Conlan said.

If Georgetown can continue that production, it will be in a powerful position entering games, especially with its solid pitching combination of seniors Hyson and Lauren O’Leary.

“I feel like with that you can’t lose many games if you’re hitting well,” Hyson said. “It’s especially a relief as a pitcher.”

But despite the offensive success, some defensive lapses have led to issues for the Hoyas, a problem Conlan hopes to iron out before this weekend.

“We can attribute quite a few runs from the other team to some defensive lapses,” Conlan said. “I’m not worried about that. I think we’re going to be fine, I think it may have just been the first weekend on dirt. … but that’s definitely an area that we need a better showing in.”

Even with a couple wrinkles, the Hoyas have a strong team entering the UNC-Wilmington Tournament, and they are looking forward to getting some more playing time and bonding time under their belts.

“I believe we will continue to be on an incline of making improvements each weekend, continuously getting better,” Gargicevich-Almeida said. “I love everything we are about this season. Everyone is focused and genuinely loves each other. We are all on the same page and working towards a common goal.”