On Wednesday, October 11, the Tiger softball team and twenty-three other softball teams across Nebraska came together in Hastings to play in the Class B state softball tournament. The Tigers faced number four seed Beatrice in their first-round matchup.
“[The biggest struggle at the end of the year was] keeping it together, we obviously were very excited about making it farther, but we had that one tough weekend… it kind of ruined our [power] points when we had a four-game losing streak,” said junior outfielder Hallie Schultz.
On Wednesday, the teams all arrived at Bill Smith Softball Complex on an almost unprecedented, warm afternoon for state softball. The teams looked forward to the next three days, where they would play for a title.
“Our mindset was to leave it all out there. We deserved the season we got and no one was ready to be done,” said lone Tiger senior Emma Landgren.
Although, the Tigers were not new to the tournament, after making it nine of the last ten years. The Tigers played Beatrice in their first-round matchup and were down 7-1, but made an amazing comeback and won 8-7 after a walk-off, bases-clearing double from junior Makenzie Nollette.
“It was the kind of coaches that have really bought into the program, bought into the school into being successful… we just found coaches that are dedicated to it,” Head coach Blake Marquardt said.
The Tigers got a huge win after overcoming trailing by six runs. They went on to face the Blair Bears who went into the tournament as the favorites to win the Class B tournament being the number one seed in Class B throughout the whole season. The Tigers would fail to overcome the challenge of facing the best team in the state and ended up getting run-ruled in an eight-to-zero loss where the Tiger bats severely struggled.
“Most of us play [softball] almost year round so everyone does get into slumps. Softball is such a mental game. We kept our heads up and knew we could do it,” Landgren said.
The state tournament, though, is double elimination, which gave the Tigers another chance to make a run in the tournament. In the Tigers’ next competition, they went against the Grand Island Northwest Vikings, Hastings’ biggest rival. The Vikings went into the tournament as the number two seed but got upset in the first round by Scottsbluff. Then, they went on to knock Waverly out of the tournament completely, handing them their second loss, and went on to face the Tigers.
“A lot of hatred, there’s a lot of hatred there, but it’s intense, it’s fun to play in the game [against Northwest],” Schultz said.
The Tigers ended up losing to the Vikings by a score of six to three and ended their state hopes and their season. The Tigers look forward to next year though as they only will be without one senior, Emma Landgren. Coach Marquardt will look to make off-season improvements with eight of nine starters returning after a great first season as Tiger head coach.
“[We will] continue to build on [team building] because again, you’re gonna have times where young girls are competing for the same or similar spots. Again, that can create tension, but you need to find ways to celebrate each other’s small successes and the team’s overall success,” Marquardt said.
