Webster JV Softball : Outrunning the Jaguars: Webster 12, Seckman 2

Seckman has long been a nemesis, at least for the JV (and going farther back into the 90s for the varsity), so I was looking forward to the test they would bring to our team. It was only after they arrived that we learned this was their second JV team, although their coach confessed that he had two decent pitchers. Although a bit disappointing, I think there may have been some gamesmanship in providing that scouting report, maybe hoping to soften us up. But we played like we were facing a 5-0 team, which we were, and which we became, scoring 7 runs in the fifth inning to end the contest with the 10-run rule.

Although the Jaguars threatened to put up a “crooked number” in the first three innings, TK and our defense limited them to single tallies until we could expand our 5-2 lead and walk off. It was a solid team effort and (perhaps overly) aggressive baserunning pushed across runs when Seckman couldn’t respond to the pressure.

Softball isn’t like some other sports, where umpire or referee baiting pays off. I’ve always felt like complaining to umpires about their efforts works at cross purposes. Whether that was true today or not, I don’t know, but I do know the Seckman coach was well known to at least the field umpire (from summer ball); if the plate umpire didn’t know him before, he certainly did by the end of the game. Let’s just point out that he prevailed in exactly none of the four questions/complaints about rulings during our game. Draw your own conclusions on that while you peruse the box score, pictures from Andrew Graning, Karen Smith and the bench. Then, if you have an extra $2 to spare, com watch us at Fox tomorrow as we close out our games this week. (Personally, there have been years we should have paid people to watch JV games, but Fox sees it differently.)