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Blue Springs, MO —
Inexperience hasn’t deterred the Blue Springs softball team this season.
A year after riding a veteran squad to a postseason run that culminated with a Class 4 state runner-up finish, the Wildcats are regularly relying on a half dozen sophomores and freshmen.
But so far, that hasn’t slowed Blue Springs as it picked up its ninth win in its last 10 games with Thursday’s 4-2 Suburban Big Six Conference victory over host Blue Springs South.
“They have a lot of enthusiasm,” said Blue Springs coach Roger Lower, who started four sophomores and two freshmen against the Jaguars. “They’re starting to play together as a team and depend on each other. I hope we’re coming together.”
Minus one first-inning goof, the Cats (15-5, 5-2 conference) manufactured about as crisp a performance as Lower could ask for. Blue Springs took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Kelsey Brady led off with a bunt single, stole second and then scored when the throw by South's catcher sailed into center field. The Jags (10-10, 3-5) knotted the score in their half after Cheyenne Watkins singled and later scored on Bailey Autrey’s single after escaping a pickle in between third and home. South added a second run when Julia Woelbel scored on a passed ball.
The botched rundown drew Lower from the dugout and he delivered a verbal scolding to his squad in an animated discussion in the pitcher’s circle.
“That didn’t make me very happy,” Lower said. “We’re yelling at them and telling them what to do and we’ve been over it in practice.”
But as Lower said after the game, “that happens.” What he found encouraging was how his team reacted. In the third, Kennedy Dujakovich led Blue Springs off with a double. She scored two batters later on Brady’s double and Brady put the Cats up 3-2 when she scored on a South error.
Blue Springs added an insurance run in the sixth when Morgan McMahan drove in Brittani Reid with a sacrifice fly.
“We came out and we were solid,” said Brady, a senior left fielder who went 3-for-4 with two runs scored. “We started right off the bat going hard and wanted to win. We came to play.”
After a rocky first, Wildcat pitcher Alexis Reid stifled South with six shutout frames. Only two South runners advanced past first base after the first inning.
Inexperience hasn’t deterred the Blue Springs softball team this season.
A year after riding a veteran squad to a postseason run that culminated with a Class 4 state runner-up finish, the Wildcats are regularly relying on a half dozen sophomores and freshmen.
But so far, that hasn’t slowed Blue Springs as it picked up its ninth win in its last 10 games with Thursday’s 4-2 Suburban Big Six Conference victory over host Blue Springs South.
“They have a lot of enthusiasm,” said Blue Springs coach Roger Lower, who started four sophomores and two freshmen against the Jaguars. “They’re starting to play together as a team and depend on each other. I hope we’re coming together.”
Minus one first-inning goof, the Cats (15-5, 5-2 conference) manufactured about as crisp a performance as Lower could ask for. Blue Springs took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Kelsey Brady led off with a bunt single, stole second and then scored when the throw by South's catcher sailed into center field. The Jags (10-10, 3-5) knotted the score in their half after Cheyenne Watkins singled and later scored on Bailey Autrey’s single after escaping a pickle in between third and home. South added a second run when Julia Woelbel scored on a passed ball.
The botched rundown drew Lower from the dugout and he delivered a verbal scolding to his squad in an animated discussion in the pitcher’s circle.
“That didn’t make me very happy,” Lower said. “We’re yelling at them and telling them what to do and we’ve been over it in practice.”
But as Lower said after the game, “that happens.” What he found encouraging was how his team reacted. In the third, Kennedy Dujakovich led Blue Springs off with a double. She scored two batters later on Brady’s double and Brady put the Cats up 3-2 when she scored on a South error.
Blue Springs added an insurance run in the sixth when Morgan McMahan drove in Brittani Reid with a sacrifice fly.
“We came out and we were solid,” said Brady, a senior left fielder who went 3-for-4 with two runs scored. “We started right off the bat going hard and wanted to win. We came to play.”
After a rocky first, Wildcat pitcher Alexis Reid stifled South with six shutout frames. Only two South runners advanced past first base after the first inning.
“She’s getting better every game, too,” Lower said. “She’s getting more comfortable as a pitcher knowing what she can and can’t do and (learning) the pitches she needs to throw. We’ve talked a lot about location and she’s getting a lot better at moving it around and keeping people off-balance.”
Dujakovich also went 2-for-3 for the Cats. Julia Woelbel finished 1-for-3, reached twice and scored for South.
Jaguar coach Kristi Williams said she thought her squad’s effort was mostly solid, but she noted that Blue Springs’ leadoff batter reached in five innings. The only frame in which South’s leadoff batter reached, the Jags plated two runs.
“We gave them a couple extra bases here and there,” Williams said. “We didn’t make them earn everything. But they didn’t make us earn everything either. We just needed to take advantage of some more opportunities that we had.”
