The softball season started in late February for most high school teams but it felt like it just began last week. Rain, rain and more rain and then Spring Break week has gotten the season off to a soggy, sporadic start.
Most teams were able to get in two or three games last week and every schedule is full for the rest of the season. Last week’s play was indicative of the season with spotty fielding and poor timing at the plate. The weather has played a factor for most teams.
Junction City softball coach Jay Burroughs said, “We pulled up at the field at Crossett (Thursday) and I asked my assistant, wonder if ‘G’ is thinking about this game from last year? This is the game that she injured her knee.”
The coach was speaking about Kalani Noble, who suffered the knee injury late last season. It forced her to miss the 2A State Tournament.
If she was thinking about the injury before the game, it didn’t show. The senior went 3-for-4 with a home run in the Lady Dragons’ 10-7 victory.
Noble admitted though, last year’s injury has had an impact on her play this season.
Things were so much simpler when teams played district tournaments at the end of the season to decide who advanced to the regional. Coaches in the 2A 8 voted against the district tournament in favor of seeding teams into the regional tournament based on the regular-season round-robin records.
Going into the final week of softball, according to Scorebook Live, Woodlawn has sewn up the No. 1 seed but Ouachita, Parkers Chapel, Junction City and Fordyce are all within a game of one another. There’s even a scenario where all four teams could end up with 6-6 records. Only three of those four teams will advance to the regional tournament.