"So Ugly It Could Sit on a Tombstone and Hatch Ghosts" Webster 10, Seckman 7

“The worst JV game I’ve seen in two years,” said the Webster coach. I’m not sure that’s really an exaggeration, but the best thing about yesterday’s 10-7 win over the Seckman Jaguars C-Team was that it was played on a satellite fields and the Statesmen fans who made the trek and braved the heat were not charged $2 admission. Even the field goal we won by bounced in off the crossbar.

The game was so ugly that there are no pictures. It reminded me of an old Moms Mabley punchline: “So ugly [it] could sit on a tombstone and hatch ghosts.” Of our 27 outs, we gave up 8 on called third strikes. Our 9 errors only exceeded that number by 1. Our pitchers deserved better, but also deserve credit for not letting our sloppy play distract them from their mission. They allowed only 1 walk, and half the hits credited to Seckman came from pop ups that should have been caught.

However, we stopped flailing and bailing long enough to right the ship and limp safely into harbor with our fifth victory of the year. (POG –>Freshman Bailey Allen) Heading into our Friday home contest against the Fox Warriors, we stand at 5-6. 

We will need to play more like we did against Summit or being late to the home football game for the band activities won’t be a problem. Monday will be a designated “non-starter start” game against the Colts of Parkway Central. 

Perhaps I’ll see some of you when the WGHS Jazz Band performs Saturday at the Jazz Fest.

Great Game, But On the Wrong Side of a 4-3 Score vs. Summit

“The best JV game I’ve seen in two years,” said the home plate umpire after the game. Softball is a game of inches and we were a bit unlucky and a couple inches (well, maybe feet) away from walking it off in the bottom of the seventh.

Lots of good defensive plays (unfortunately, sort of, by both teams), few walks led to a crisply played game that Rockwood Summit won, 4-3. We may get the series tiebreaker if we face them in the Fox JV Tournament at the end of the year.

Highlight performances included three scoreless innings in the circle by POG Nic Rikand, a caught stealing by Marko, who also made a good tag at the plate on a strong throw by Emmy Gary, and a nifty 6-3-5 double play from Taylor Smith, Maci Rekart and Morgan Lawrence. We struggled against a pretty good pitcher, perhaps a bit overanxious early, then a bit timid later. Balls that were hit hard saw good plays by their center and left fielders. Even so, the tying and winning runs were in scoring position when the game ended on Morgan Lawrence’s smash at the second baseman.

So it goes, sometimes. Our record stands at 4-6 as we head down to Seckman tomorrow. If you’re going to follow us, be reminded that there will be a $2 entrance fee, although today’s game would have been worth that admission price. Not too many pictures today (but thanks, Karen Smith) because the game was too exciting to view through a camera lens! 

Speaking of pictures, don’t forget to order your photo book if you haven’t already.

Olivia Leaver fields her position to get the first out in the 4th inning.

Emmy Gary fires a strike to Nora (Marko) Marcinkiewicz to end the 4th inning.

Happy Birthday, Morgan. Cupcakes! We not only have good players, but good people and teammates. #teambonding

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.)

Emmy Gary drives in the first run of the game and the first of her two RBI in the game. 

Ivy Clark takes the throw from Marko to slow down this Jaguar trying to steal third.

Nora (Marko) Marcinkiewicz drives the ball. Her CR, Caitlyn Boyd, stole 4 bases on the afternoon.

Taylor Smith put three strong ABs together, drove in three runs.

Our girls consistently demonstrate sportsmanship and team camaraderie. #pleasuretocoach

Wrong Kind of Lightning: Fox 16, Webster 7

For a while we put a scare into the Fox Warriors, putting them on the ropes. We played fast, aggressive softball, took good at bats, ran the bases well. But a Fox pitching change, added to the fourth time through the lineup gave our opponents too many bites at the same apple; they adjusted, put good swings on the ball, and we made some mistakes on balls hit hard and soft, the result being a 13-run sixth inning and a 16-7 loss. Halfway through that inning, as the skies darkened, I suggested to the coaches that what we really needed was lightning. Unfortunately, the thunder was only coming from Fox bats. We did finally put a stop to the Warrior attack and got to the plate for our half of the seventh without falling victim to the 10-run rule. Sadly, the score alone makes the loss look far more one-sided than it really was.

One thing we are trying to learn is to limit our losses, to take the easy out and stop the bleeding, to keep from prolonging a big inning. While true at any level, it is especially important for JV teams, where things can get out of hand in a hurry. Despite the game being seemingly out of hand, we did put two runners on in the seventh, but couldn’t quite adjust to the second Fox pitcher.

I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do against Hazelwood West tomorrow and Marquette on Friday, leading into the (apparently chilly) Hancock Tournament on Saturday. The girls have done a good job of applying what they’ve learned this season and are making good progress.

Two final plusses: Claudia and I have clearly mastered to glove-bat exchange toss (see pix below) and Amy Love sent a beautiful message to Fox re: their absurd $3 admission fee. I also complained as we entered, suggesting schools should play people to watch JV softball, not the other way around. Apparently not the first complaint they’ve heard. I’m looking for parent volunteers to manage Admission Tables when Fox and Seckman come to visit. Webster families will be issued a pass with their athletic fee. Just sayin’....