The Illinois softball team had another losing campaign this weekend, dropping three of five games in Houston.

Head coach Terri Sullivan was disappointed that her team couldn’t maintain the intensity all weekend.

“We started off playing so well,” Sullivan said. “We just need to get out of the mentality that we can always change the game with just one swing. We need to learn to just chip away.”

The Illini picked up wins against New Mexico (12-4) and host Houston (10-7) on Friday behind two huge offensive performances. Leading the offensive charge for the Illini were second baseman Allie Bauch and shortstop Ruby Rivera.

Rivera has a .426 batting average and nine RBIs this season and has been a major contributor to the Illini’s offense all season. Rivera’s offensive game thrives on consistency.

“I played pretty consistent,” Rivera said. “We fell off, though, at the end, and we all played pretty badly.”

Illinois came into Saturday morning with a lot of momentum, but suffered a 12-4 loss to New Mexico. Lack of intensity was the cause for this loss, according to Rivera.

“We really took our foot off the gas pedal,” Rivera said. “We stopped focusing on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball.”

After averaging double-digit run totals on Friday, the Illini only recorded four runs against New Mexico.

In the Illini’s second game Saturday, against Texas A&M Corpus-Christi, Illinois started slow — falling behind 6-1. The game was delayed by rain and eventually postponed to Sunday morning. Illinois looked at the delay as a way to reset the players’ minds and get back in the right mentality. When the game resumed Sunday, sophomore pitcher Breanna Wonderly took the circle for the Illini.

Wonderly took control of the game early, shutting down Texas A&M Corpus-Christi. The Illini couldn’t bridge the run deficit, and lost the game 6-4.

Illinois ended the weekend with its second game against Houston. Sullivan was confident in Wonderly’s performance in the morning and gave the sophomore the start.

However, it was a completely different Wonderly in the circle against Houston, as she walked her first four batters faced and Sullivan had to go to the bullpen in the bottom of the first. After barely escaping the first inning, pitching and defensive errors doomed the Illini for the rest of the game as they lost 12-2.

The Illini have been unable to play consistent softball this season, according to Sullivan.

“Now all we can do is get back to work, and get ready to go to Florida next week,” Sullivan said.

Cole can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @cole_Henke.