On Monday, Sept. 29. the girls softball team took on Norfolk at home for their senior night. In 2023, Norfolk beat them to win the Westside district championship and went to state with the higher seeding. Westside still got to go to state, but received the wild card. Last year in 2024, the girls drove up to Norfolk to play them on their senior night, and ended up winning 10-7. This year, Norfolk came up to Omaha, to play the Westside girls on their senior night.
This game is always emotional and goes the full 7 innings, but it was especially emotional since it was senior night. Coach Leapley knew this game would be hard, but he also knew that the girl needed to take a win.
“I reminded them that it’s still just softball — play loose, play for each other, and enjoy the moment. I told them to show their emotions instead of ignoring them, which helped them relax,” Leapley said “I kept things light in the dugout, focusing on simple adjustments and celebrating small wins — a good at-bat, a defensive play, a quality pitch. That kept their focus on the present instead of the occasion.”
This time the game went 8 innings, a battle to the very end. Norfolk scored in the top of the first making the score 1-0, but in the bottom of the second Westside scored and made the score 1-1. Senior Hadley Hansen caught the whole game, and spoke about the pressure there was to win the game, as well as how she kept the team calm even when they stayed tied through 5 innings.
“I was telling my teammates the entire game that I had no doubt we were going to win. I truly believed it, and then all we had to do was execute. It was an emotional roller coaster because of senior night and how close the game was but we wanted the win more, and we all played for each other which was really good to see,” Hansen said.
In the top of the eighth, Norfolk put a bunt down to score their runner on second, this made the score 2-1.
Sophomore Malia Kate was put in to pinch hit, and eventually she walked after getting down in the count. Senior Baylee Heffernan was next in the lineup and the catcher missed the ball advancing Malia to 2nd. Then Baylee barreled the ball to right center scoring the winning run. She talks about the pressure to make contact with the ball in the tough moment.
“I kept telling myself that I got this, and I have to do this for my girls for our senior night,” Heffernan said.
Coach Leapley knew the emotions would be high, even for himself, but he knew that the girls should have scored a couple more runs than they did. He was a little upset with their hitting, but thought that they did a fine job on defense.
“Norfolk is a very solid team. It’s why you play the game. It was senior night with lots of fans and lots of emotions for everyone. I feel our defense has been playing really well of late. We just have to start hitting the ball,” Leapley said.
The girls ended up on top, but need to focus on the next couple games of the regular season, before they head into districts. Hansen talks about what their mindset was going into the week.
“Our first goal was to host a district. Now that we are there, we need to protect our house, and prove that we deserve to be a top 5 team in the state. As long as the team continues to work together and have energy we should be just fine,” Hansen said.
As the seven seniors on the team only have a couple games left they want to go as far as possible into the state tournament. Heffernan talks about their goals for their last regular season games and for districts.
“We want to hold our own district at Westside and win it so we can go back to state this year. This has been our goal for two years and this year we are just inches away from reaching it,” Heffernan said.
Catch the girls during districts running around the diamond on Oct. 8. and Oct. 9.
