Francis Howell Tournament

The Francis Howell Tournament is a long drive for a long day of softball. But we get a chance to face teams we don't see during the regular season and generally play some pretty good competition. Thanks to the many parents who made the trek and cheered the team. One thing I've noticed over the years: Webster parents enjoy rooting for the girls and encouraging good play, certainly like winning games. Unlike parents from other places, however, it's the process and not the results that seem to matter most. I often get the feeling that the well-being of parents (and their kids) from other district hinges on the outcome of a JV softball game. Just sayin'....

In Game 1 we faced a strong squad from tournament host Francis Howell and suffered our first run-rule defeat of the season. Nevertheless, our girls earned praise from FHHS coaches and it took a walk-off bomb in the bottom of the 5th to finish us. Those girls could hit, and with the wind blowing out on a baseball diamond, let's just say we had ample opportunity to handle our cuts and relays. I was very pleased with how we handled that. Only triples and doubles, no homers or circling the bases on errors. They were just better than us, doubt that we'd beat them even once in a 10-game series. We did score 6 runs against good pitching, something the Vikings were apparently not used to have happening.

The second game pitted us against Fort Zumwalt South, a program seemingly on the decline. They were the power team when we first started going to this tournament. Our first year we lost to them in the finals, 7-2, in a game that wasn’t even as close as the score would indicate. However, they have become increasingly less competitive over the years, for whatever reason. We suffered a brief letdown as it was clear we were the better team and we lost a little concentration and played down to their level. We regrouped and put the game out of reach with a 12-run fifth inning that we had to end ourselves by having a runner leave the bag early. AnnaClaire Bryant did a nice job picking up her second win, with lots of offensive support up and down the line-up.

Often the final game in a tournament like this is the closest as the competition is leveled. Playing for fifth place against Fort Zumwalt North, we lost in a back and forth game as we ran out of gas on defense and made some costly errors. As noted above, I got the feeling that the FZ North parents needed this win more than ours did. The box score looks worse than it was, because going into the time-limit the score was only 10-9. Needing a quick inning, the Panthers tacked on three more to eat up the remaining time. Their coach became less upset about the time limit than she had been when she was trailing 9-7….

As always, enjoy the outstanding photos by the team photographer, Beth Kazlauskus. I saw other parents doing some shooting Saturday and I just wanted to let everyone know that Beth does not have the exclusive contract for pix, so feel free to share with me and I’ll post them, as well.

It IS a long day of softball and we’ll need to ramp up our ability to focus if we’re going to be successful next week at the Hancock Tournament at Affton. Team notes: Transportation to the tournament on your own. First game time, 8:30. Time limit: 1 hour, 20 minutes. Game 2: 10 a.m. Game 3: 11:30 a.m. Done by 1 p.m. The Lamprechts are graciously hosting an end-of-season BBQ and I look forward to seeing you and the players there.