New Location, Same Result: Parkway Central Tournament

We moved this year from the Francis Howell Tournament the last weekend in September to the Parkway Central Tournament closer to the midway mark of the season. The timing is better and we hoped the competition would be a little more balanced. 

There was still some carryover in teams (Timberland and Hazelwood West, both of whom we faced Saturday, of course), and the competition is uneven, but that is the nature of the beast, not just in JV softball but occasionally on the varsity level, as well. We felt like this tournament might allow us a better assessment, a mid-term grade, if you will. It also offers the (unneeded this year) potential to reschedule should weather become an issue.

But most of all, the FH Tourney had stopped being fun. We would travel a long way for a butt-kicking in the first game (ever since we came in second a few years ago we found ourselves in an extremely tough bracket – coincidence?), followed by a lopsided game in the other direction in Game 2, culminating in another butt-kicking in the finale (“consolation championship”). In other words, we weren’t really getting any opportunity to learn anything. A personal conflict that weekend aside, we had already talked to Activities Director Collins about finding a new tournament, and so we jumped at the chance when Parkway Central called.

We opened up against a very weak DuBourg Cavaliers squad. That program has made progress recently, but apparently took a step back this year. Josie Krueger pitched a 3-inning no hitter, walks were abundant, and the game ended with 2 outs in the bottom of the third, 15-0. The only real upside was the chance to give every play an AB, some of which weren’t planned.

It also gave us (too much) time to wait for the end of the game to determine our next opponent, a match of Kirkwood vs. Hazelwood West that went into extra innings. Hazelwood West took advantage of the rematch (we had defeated them 8-4 earlier) and with the help of a generous strike zone, and won easily, 10-1, as their pitched notched 11 of the 15 outs via KO. We played okay but never really mounted a threat. Had we been able to put the ball in play, as we did at our house a couple weeks ago, the result might have been different.

That set us up to play a new opponent, Fort Zumwalt West, in the third place game. They had just lost a tough contest to Timberland and were in a foul mood, thinking that game had cost them a chance to influence the course of world events or something. In any case, despite a 2-run bomb by Zoe Schulz, they broke the contest open with a 7-run fourth inning and scored the 10-run victory one out shy of finishing the 5^th inning. Not that it would have mattered, because we ran out of time, as well.

We were able to keep our promise that every girl would get one full game of batting and fielding, and the inevitability of the first and last game allowed us to provide playing time for the bench, as well. Even though we finished with a 1-2 record for the tournament (the same as the past few years out at Francis Howell), we felt like we had more competitive, balanced games, even if the outcomes were pretty clear early.

As far as mid-term grades go, Coach Cerutti and I feel like we may have turned the corner in team energy. The girls seem to be coming together in terms of commitment and team identity. We are pleased with their progress, both as softball players and teammates and look forward to the last three weeks, finishing up with the Hancock Tournament. Once again, we guarantee every girl will have at least one complete game at which to show her (hopefully improved) skills. Hancock is a little bit of an oddity (the tournament, although as a 37-year veteran of that high school, the school and district also fit that description), in that it offers us the option to “bat the lineup” like some summer leagues, and we take advantage of that.

So mark your calendars for the weekend of October 3 at Affton Athletic Association (no bus: some of you could walk there faster than the bus anyway), where we will try to defend our 2013 Championship (we were rained out last year). In the meantime, enjoy the box scores and AmyJo Love’s pictures from this weekend’s games.