3-Peat: Hancock Tournament Champions (Again)

We travelled to Affton Athletic Saturday to defend our title in the Hancock JV Tournament. Hancock HS was where I spent most of my teaching career and began my softball coaching career.

After some initial confusion as to opponent and location, we finally led off against Affton for the second time this year. Like our first tilt, this game also lasted (almost) 3 innings as Josie Krueger followed Jessica Peterson’s double and circled the bases on a hit and a misplay to end the game. Megan Hayes picked up her fifth win the circle with a 2-hit shutout, benefitting from a nifty double play in the first by Maya Litton to stifle the Cougars.

Game 2 pitted us against Parkway South which, behind Josie Krueger in the circle, was less dramatic than might have been expected, ending in a 5-inning 13-1 victory, put out of reach with a 6-run fifth inning. Our Alaskan import, Rebekah Riefle had the biggest hit, with a 2-RBI triple in the third. Solid defense backed Josie’s 7 strikeouts and the Patriots never really mounted any attack.

The championship contest, like last year, pitted us against DuBourg, which tends to bring some of the biggest, oldest looking JV players to the tournament, and then find all sorts of things to complain about. They did, however, bat all 10 team members. Allyson Peters took the ball but suffered a recurrence of her sore arm and we needed Josie to take over as we trailed 1-0 after a half inning. Claire Kellick answered that run with the obligatory Field 2 homer, a shot down the left field line to the fence, seemingly located in Grantwood Village. Five runs in the second, from the middle of the lineup, featuring hits from freshmen Maya Litton, Megan Hayes, Noel Spatola and Jessica Peterson, made my heart happy for those players and relieved any tension and worry. The game may have ended due to the time limit, but the outcome was no longer in doubt, and the Statesmen added their third straight trophy to the collection (we had never won this tournament until our current seniors won it as freshmen; weather cancelled that group’s chance to defend their title as sophomores).

What I really like about the Hancock Tournament, and the reason we play in it, is because we can bat the lineup and give every girl a chance to show off her skills, both at the plate and in the field. I get nervous that such an approach will cost us a winnable game, and when you’ve been as successful as we have been this year, it’s easy to get greedy and lose sight of our goal of building players. But look at the box scores and you can see that every player contributed and we got offensive production from the top, middle and bottom of the lineup. I’m proud of our girls and how they cheered for and supported each other. This trophy belongs to ALL OF THEM.

I’m trying to come up with a unique way to celebrate this season, which represents the most wins of any team I’ve coached in my career. This year has been special for many reasons and, if we can finish with a win against Cor Jesu, will set additional personal and team benchmarks. I have at least one oddball idea, but no matter what else I might decide to do to commemorate this special season, plan on a trip to Serendipity to spoil your dinner appetite after Tuesday’s game–on me, of course.

Coaching is also about teamwork, and I was lucky to have two strong assistants, Chris Fechtel and....

Kate Wylie

Junior Nicole Preston did a great job as our manager; she was an invaluable asset to both the team and me.

Taking advantage of a time gained by the quick win over Affton to reward some overdue stickers recognizing special achievements and games by our players.

We appreciated the support from the seniors responsible for starting this run of tournament success. 

As always, thanks to Amy Jo Love (and her apprentice) for the pix.

Knock Knock. Who's There? Statesmen Bats. Webster 14, Pattonville 3

The first “real’ game, our conference opener, was over almost before it started, as the Statesmen banged out 6 hits and forced 3 errors on other hard hit balls, scoring 9 runs in the first. We did at least get to play 5 innings (well, 4 ^1/2 actually) and apply the 10-run rule instead of the 15-run standard that marked our first 2 games. We also lowered our walks per game average from 15 to 10, as the Pirate pitcher had good control and threw strikes, which we hit, and hit, and hit.... The Pirates may have made almost as many errors as the Cardinals in a home game, but several of those were because we hit the ball so hard that they were overmatched.

Our third pitcher finished what she started as Allyson Peters continued the fine work in the circle. Zoe Schultz completed our first double play, Elise Keller banged out our first triple, and Guin Ellsworth drove in two more runs. That total was matched by Keller, Josie Krueger, and Jenna Hoffman who also added 2 hits to her career first from last game. The girls really distinguished themselves with outstanding base running, and not just our rabbits at the top and bottom of the order.

We’ll see how the season develops, and it’s too early to get overconfident, but there’s more than half a chance we’re going to be pretty good. As well as we played today, the team agreed we still have even more to offer. The spirit, work ethic, and desire to improve are all promising and I’m looking forward to seeing just how high our ceiling can be. I’m thinking those old houses down on the Lafayette Square house tour have nothing on us.

Keep track of our schedule which seems to be changing faster than a local channel weather forecast. So far we actually still have the same game schedule, just different opponents. Monday we will play our first of two games against Summit, Tuesday (9/6) we’ll replace the DuBourg Cavaliers with the Vikings of Parkway North (originally scheduled for Monday), and on Monday (9/12) travel to Lutheran South instead of Parkway West. 

As always, thanks to Amy Jo Love for the pictures. Kind of gives you a preview of what to look for in the photo books she and Stacey Greer are preparing.