The Westside varsity baseball team will be looking to regroup as they come out of their tough loss at metros against Papillion-La Vista. After a 14-7 first-round win up against Omaha Burke Thursday afternoon, Papillion-La Vista would shock the Warriors 4-3 in the nightcap. With two distinct offensive showings on the day, junior utility-man RJ Gunderson felt that the team just couldn’t find any breaks.

“We weren’t able to catch a spark. We were able to get three runs in the fourth but after that our luck just wasn’t there,” Gunderson said. 

Westside came out ready to hit in the game against Burke putting up 15 total hits throughout the game. Up against Papillion-La Vista, however, the Warriors’ bats could not find the same rhythm with only five hits. Gunderson expressed the team’s talent is there but sometimes mental blockages get in the way. 

“We have the talent and the work ethic already to be the top dawgs for state,” Gunderson said.  “We need to go every day with a mental view that if we work hard then good things will happen. Focusing and finishing will also be what we need to do,” 

During the game against Papillion-La-Vista small mistakes played a big factor in the lack of production. After an uncharacteristic three-hit batter first inning by starter Simon Stover compiling with an error which allowed for a bases-loaded jam, head coach Otis Seals felt the team was truly just out of reach of a win.

“For the game against Papillion La-Vista South we were a couple plays away, we had the error at second base, and Brett Thorell’s line drive that the first basemen jumped up and caught,” Seals said. “If those things went a different way we probably would have won the game.”

With the weekend off for the Warriors, the team hopes to regroup and learn from their mistakes made at Metros as they go forward into the back-end of the season.

“We’ve played a lot of games in a lot of days, “Seals said “We obviously want to win our games but we also are glad we get a few days to reset. When you get going so quick and it’s just bang, bang, bang, and it will be nice to kinda clean up a few things at practice and do that, it’s good having a few days to work on that stuff and reset will be helpful.”

Westside’s varsity will be hoping for a positive start going into next week’s games. With Monday’s game being postponed, the Warriors will have a doubleheader on April 20 up against Omaha Northwest and Papillion-La Vista South. The first pitch of the night starts at 5:00 p.m. as the Warriors look to start off another week strong.