By Mike Mogus
Head Coach
The Wakefield 18U softball team traveled to Hastings to compete in the State Softball Tournament. The girls went 1-3 to end their season. In the first game, the ladies faced a team from North Platte. Alli Brown pitched an outstanding game. The only problem was the pitcher from the Belles pitched even better. Both teams were scoreless going into the 7th inning. Because of time, there was a runner placed on second base. The girls could not finish the game on top allowing 2 hits and committing 2 errors in that inning to drop the game 4-0. Brianna Bousquet and Daveigh Munter-McAfee collected the only hits for Wakefield.
The second game pitted the girls against a team from Wahoo. The bats were a little slow in this game, too. The girls scored 1 run in the contest, but Wahoo scored 8. Alex Arenas, Mikkie Mogus, Sierra Kaufman, and Brown collected hits.
Because it is the State Tournament and each team is guaranteed 3 games, the girls kept playing. This time they faced Albion. After a scoreless first inning, the bats finally came alive as the girls scored 10 runs in the next two innings getting the win 10-7. Brown pitched a fantastic game giving up one run in three innings before giving way to a reliever. Collecting hits were Lily King-Lobo with 3, Arenas, Bousquet, Brown, and Megan Meyer with 2 hits each. Aishah Valenzuela, Katie Borg, and Mogus had 1 hit each.
The last game saw the girls taking on Ponca. The girls came out hot scoring 3 runs in the first inning off hits from Arenas, Munter-McAfee, Mogus, and Brown. That scoring outburst was all the girls would see only reaching base once after the first. Ponca scored 6 unanswered runs to end the season for Wakefield.
The outcome was not what anyone associated with the team wanted to see, but it wasn’t because of a lack of effort. The girls played hard every play and put their heart and soul not only into this tournament, but into the whole season. That is what every coach wants and loves to see.