The Wakefield Trojans softball team travelled to Hastings to compete in the USA Softball of Nebraska State Fastpitch Championships from Friday, July 12 through Sunday, July 14.
After a grueling double-elimination tournament filled with tough competition, Wakefield came away with third place out of 16 teams.
Wakefield finished the tournament with a record of 4-2, only losing to Ponca twice, who went on to become the Class D State Runners-Up.
In their most recent contest, the Wakefield squad competed in its final game of the season in the loser’s bracket against Ponca in a high-stakes matchup where the winner was set to play Crofton for the state championship.
The Wakefield squad got out to a solid start in the top of the first inning on defense. Despite two batters that managed to find their way on base, the Wakefield defense made a couple of solid plays to get out of the first inning without allowing a run.
In the bottom half of the inning, Wakefield was able to take a 1-0 lead off of an RBI double by Alex Arenas. It looked like the Trojans had sparked a flame, but Ponca was ready to put that flame out immediately in the top of the second.
Down by one entering the inning, Ponca managed to bat all the way through their order and score six runs to take a 6-1 lead and never look back.
While Wakefield tried to come back, and even put up three more runs in total, Poncas bats refused to cool down. And after an eight-run fifth inning, Ponca earned a 14-4 victory to send Wakefield home with the third-place state trophy.
Prior to their loss to Ponca, the Trojans were the away team for a contest against the Eagles in a loser-go-home scenario.
The Trojans once again got their contest started in the best way they could have asked for, this time with an RBI single by Daveigh Munter-McAfee in the top of the first and a 1-2-3 bottom of the first on defense to take an early 1-0 lead.
After their hot start, the Trojans continued to cook both offensively and defensively. After the squad held the Eagles scoreless once again in the bottom of the second, Arenas came up big once again with a triple to knock in another run, which was followed by a single by Mikkie Mogus to bring in Arenas and make the score 3-0 in favor of Wakefield.
Unfortunately, the Eagles weren’t finished quite yet. After the Eagles finally broke the ice with a run in the fourth inning, they rallied once again in the bottom of fifth inning with two more runs to tie things up with just two innings remaining.
After a scoreless sixth inning, the Trojans stepped up to bat in the top of the seventh with the opportunity to take the lead.
After the first two batters of the inning managed to draw walks, three of the next four batters managed to get on base to spark a rally that ended with Wakefield adding three runs to their total to take a 6-3 lead going into the bottom of the seventh.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Eagles managed to get a lead-off single, but went down quickly and quietly after that, with the next three batters being retired to end the contest and advance Wakefield in the state tournament.
Just an hour and a half before their big win against the Eagles, Wakefield took on BDS in what would be its first of three games on Sunday, July 14 at 9:30 a.m. in Wakefield’s first loser’s bracket game of the tournament.
Against BDS, neither squad was able to get anything going in the first inning, as both defenses came to play.
But, as they had against Ponca and the Eagles, Wakefield once again managed to be the team to strike first in the top of the second inning after Mogus managed to double to lead-off the inning and Sierra Kaufman followed her up with a single. By the end of the second, Wakefield had built a 2-0 lead.
The third inning belonged to BDS, however, who managed to hold Wakefield scoreless and score a run of its own when it was their turn to bat to make the score 2-1.
However, Wakefield decided enough was enough in inning number four, and plated two more runs off of a single by Brianna Bousquet to finally push BDS down for good.
The contest ended after four innings of play due to the time limit and Wakefield earned a 4-1 win to keep its season alive.
Before their three straight games on Sunday, the Trojans had played two on Saturday, July 13. Their most recent of the two contests came against Ponca in the winner’s bracket on Saturday evening.
Going into the contest, both teams were 2-0 in the tournament, and were looking to keep their momentum flowing and stay in the winner’s bracket all the way to the championship.
In this matchup, Ponca once again got the best of Wakefield. While the Trojans fought hard, and even took the lead in the first inning, the consistency of the Ponca offense was too much to handle.
Ponca scored in five of the six innings played to put up eight runs and defeat Wakefield by a final score of 8-4. This was Wakefield’s first loss of the tournament and sent them down to the loser’s bracket to attempt to battle their way back.
Earlier in the day on Saturday, July 13, Wakefield took on a familiar foe in the Hartington Penguins at 11:00 a.m.
Hartington came to play out of the gate. Immediately the Penguins used their leverage of getting to bat first to their advantage. After their leadoff spot hit a single to get on base, Hartington was able to score one run and take an early lead.
Unfortunately for Hartington, that would be their only lead of the ballgame.
Wakefield came out swinging in the bottom of the first inning. After Alli Brown and Bosquet got on base, both managed to get all the way around the bags to give Wakefield a 2-1 lead.
After the Lady Trojans took the lead, they refused to give it up.
Wakefield went on to score once more in both the second and third innings to take a 4-1 lead. Due to time-restrictions, the contest was called after Hartington was held scoreless in the fifth inning. This gave Wakefield a 4-1 win and advanced them in the championship bracket.
Finally, to begin their weekend, Wakefield took on the Palmyra Panthers on Friday, July 12 in a contest that heavily favored the Trojans.
As the away team in the contest, Wakefield took advantage of getting to bat first. After Brown grounded out to the pitcher to begin the contest, Wakefield found a groove.
The next two batters got on base before Daveigh Munter-McAfee cranked a home run to give Wakefield a 3-0 lead out of the gate.
After the solid start from Wakefield, Palmyra never found an answer. The Panthers went scoreless in the first three innings of play, while Wakefield continued to pile on the runs. By the time the Panthers scored their first run, the score already favored Wakefield 5-1.
Finally, in the fifth inning, Wakefield put the nail in the coffin with a tremendous showing of offense.
Bousquet started off the inning with a double, and that was just the spark that Wakefield needed.
Three out of the next four batters found their way on base, and by the time the inning was over, Wakefield added four more runs to its total to take a 9-1 lead.
In the bottom of the fifth, Wakefield managed to hold the Panthers to zero runs and secure a 9-1 win in the first round of the 18U Class D State Tournament.
At the end of a long, hard-fought state tournament, Wakefield ended with a record of 4-2 and finished in third place out of 16 teams that competed.
Wakefield’s two losses in the state tournament came at the hands of Ponca, who went on to become the 2024 Class D State Runners-Up after losing to Crofton on Sunday evening.