The Westside softball team finished their season last week going 0-2 in the A-6 District Tournament at Millard North on Oct. 6. The Warriors opened the tournament with a 9-1 loss to Elkhorn South. Then Lincoln Northeast defeated Westside 5-2 to eliminate the Warriors.

After the day one exit from the tournament and ending their season at 11-18, head coach TJ Eadus felt that the team just didn’t have the energy needed.

“We did not have a good showing in either game,” Eadus said. “We were flat across the board which made it difficult to compete in.”

Along with the lack of energy, the bats struggled in their two games. Westside only scored three runs on a combined six hits in their two games, the Warriors just couldn’t seem to find any offense. 

“Hitting was a struggle during districts,” junior shortstop Addie Leinen said. “When you can’t string together base hits, you can’t score and one or two runs isn’t gonna cut it in districts.”

Westside’s starting lineup consisted of only three seniors, so the Warriors have had to rely a lot on their underclassmen. Going up against two teams with similar styles of rosters, Eadus felt that their opponents were more than ready for the moment.

“Our girls saw the importance of what underclassman leadership looks like with those teams and how it helps a program,” Eadus said. “The education, the IQ, the experience those teams had in the type of atmosphere.”

The Warriors will look to continue to build off their youth from the last two seasons and use it as a stepping stone to success.

“Some static goals we had were to have over .300 team batting average-which we did with .335,” Eadus said. “ Personal team goals we had were to be present, scrappy, and compete. Although we didn’t do it every game overall I feel like we did.”

After three years on the Westside varsity, Leinen spoke in depth about what it means to become a team and win as a team.

“We learned how to grow together as a team,” Leinen said. “Last year it was more of an individual game but when you have a younger team like we did, working together to bring in runs and finish innings really is what got us through games.”

Eadus and the Warriors are very proud of how they’ve improved from last year and plan on only continuing to grow as a team and a program. Since there are only three seniors leaving the team, the Warriors have a strong base to secure them going forward.