The first two weeks of the 2020 varsity softball season are complete. Westside now has a Four-Six start to the season and is looking to get better as a team. Shortstop Addie Leinen said she remains confident.

“Going into the season I felt like it was going to be a good year. As our season progresses I feel that we will get stronger and stronger,” Leinen said. 

On Aug. 24th, softball played the Bennington Badgers where they would fall short six-seven. Finally, they would then play Millard south where they had some early struggles. Head Coach TJ Eadus talked about their struggles. 

“We are better than what we have shown. Unfortunately we beat ourselves before we give the other team the chance.” Said Eadus. “We lack being mentally tough, we are young and some of our girls haven’t played at this level. We’ve been working through breaking things down to a level where we can all be on the same page and how to come forward together.”   

The team played on Aug. 29 at the Blair invitational, going 2-2. They lost to Marian 12-0 and to Waverly 11-0. Beating Duchesne 9-1 and also beating Ralston 16-8. Softball placed third in this tournament. Sophomore infielder, Ellie Brartish-Bang said the team has some things to work.

“We need to work on not getting down on ourselves as much and picking each other up,” said Bartish-Bang “I think that this weekend was not the best representation of the team but not the worst. There was definitely a possibility of a different outcome of certain games.” said Bartish-Bang.

They then played Columbus in a conference game, winning 7-5. They had a slow start to the game but got the bats going in the 5th, 6th, and 7th innings of the game. 

“Communication is probably the biggest thing we need to work on.  It’s the key to winning games,” “We aren’t playing to our full extent, little struggles here and there but soon we will get over their nerves and play how we know to play,” Lienen said.

They then played in the Blair tournament going 1-2. Losing to Fremont Zero-Six and also to Mercy 2-7. They beat Bellevue West 9-1 having a fast start to the game and keeping the lead. They then played Millard West at home and away Gretna on Sept. 1st and 2nd, they lost both games, losing 3-4 in the first and 1-9 in the second.

“I do think that it took a bit but we finally started working together and played better. In the end, [our] team shouldn’t be judged from where they started but where they end up finishing,” said Bartish-Bang

In two weeks the Warriors play two conference games against Papio-La Vista and Millard North, then will face-off against Duchesne in a non-conference game. All games will take place on Sept. 15th, 17th, and 21st at home.