Playing for Plastic: Hancock Tournament Champions

We treat the annual Hancock Tournament as a showcase event. We want every girl to get a chance to display her skills and improvement since early August. For that reason, we take advantage of the rule (unique to this high school tournament, as far as I know) to “bat the line-up” and use free substitution. None of our opponents did that, which is certainly their prerogative; their goals may be different than ours. Still, it was nice to not only win this tournament for the first time, but to do it “our way,” with every girl playing and contributing. We have some celebratory pictures for now, with a promise of more to come from the games themselves.

Game 1: Webster 7, Bishop DuBourg 6

After the Cavaliers jumped out to a 4-0 lead, it seemed as if they expected us to fold. They don’t know our team. Our defense tightened and clutch hitting inched us closer, so that we were just down by 2, 6-4, going into the home half of the seventh. Mind you, this is a JV game being played on a one hour, twenty minute clock. We hustled in and out, played fast, and preserved our shot. Apparently we saw the whites of their eyes and scored 3 runs without giving up an out in the seventh, as Brittany “Clutch” Hartung knocked in another game-winner, her third and fourth RBI of the game, stunning the DuBourg players, coaches and fans. Sami Meyer closed strong over the last 5 innings and Hannah Love (at least) tied a record by recording all three assists from third base in the bottom of the sixth.

Game 2: Webster 11, Duchesne 1

Fresh from their own walk-off win over Parkway South, Duchesne won the toss and took home field advantage. That ploy may have backfired as we rocked them with 6 first-inning runs, featuring homers by Bekah Perman and Hannah Leatherbarrow. Megan McClure added her own in the third. AnnaClaire Bryant tossed a shutout for three innings and Sami finished up. Although the outcome was never in doubt after the first inning, it was nice to finish early with the 10-run rule against the team that knocked us into the consolation bracket last year in Game 2.

Championship Game: Webster 17, Ritenour 2

We dropped our opening game to the Huskies by an 8-6 score as they jumped us with a 4-run sixth inning at Plymouth. We exacted more than a little revenge with a mercy rule trouncing that took only 3+ innings. Hitting stars included Kate Kazlaukus (3 runs), Brittany Hartung, Molly Kurtz, Maia Langdon, Bekah Perman (bases loaded triple and a 2 RBI single to end the game) and Roschan Rao. Sami Meyer’s gimpy ankle gave out, but she turned the ball over to AnnaClaire Bryant who shut down Riternour and preserved the win. A word about our pitching this year: our pitchers walked only 4 batters between them in all three games today. Their ability to throw strikes kept our defense in the games and allowed us to play so many full-inning games. Kudos to them.