Editor’s Note: Stats are as of March 15.

Manhattan (2-3) didn’t know when its season opener was going to be for two weeks.

It’s first five games were either postponed (2) or cancelled (3) thanks to snow and rain and has adjusted its schedule twice. This team is no stranger to this type of setback. Last year, Manhattan’s first 11 games were also affected by inclement weather.

“You just kind of have to go back to where you came from,” infielder Stephanie Reinhardt said about how the beginnings of the last two seasons have been wiped off the schedule due to poor weather. “In high school you’re inside for a longtime before you get outside, and you have to be able to trust yourself to be able to know you can play the game and that once you get outside it’s still the same game.”

Postponements and cancellations have held Manhattan back from playing under its slogan for this season: “Unfinished Business.”  It’s a phrase meant as a motivational reminder of its 8-0 loss to Iona (1-8) in the MAAC championship last year.

Through 11 games so far, Manhattan is being led to its hopeful return to the title game by MAAC Preseason Player of the Year Elena Bowman who has not disappointed. She has a .636 batting average, six walks, zero strikeouts, .789 on-base, .818 slugging and has been perfect in the field (.1000).

“We were so close and we had a chance,” Reinhardt said when asked about how she felt after the loss to Iona. “Kind of put a target on our back and also puts a fire under our butts to just really, really know that this season people aren’t going to pin us as the underdogs.”

“The name of this game is pitching,” Manhattan coach Tom Pardalis said. “Last year in that championship series, our pitchers took us a long way, so we’re expecting to do the same thing again this year.”