Softball girls look forward to State Tournament

HARTINGTON — With an additional week to prepare for the Class D part of the 2023 USA Softball of Nebraska 18U State Tournament, the Hartington 18s softball team has done the best it can to prepare for its second straight trip to the most important tournament of the year.

Both the 18-and-under and 12-and-under teams are getting ready for that moment as the tournaments get going July 14-16 in Hastings at the Smith Softball Complex. Neither bracket was made available as of press time.

The 18s finished the season a game below .500 and head coach Bryce Grutsch said the result wasn’t where he had hoped.

“We just let too many winnable games slip away early in the year,” he said. “I feel comfortable with where we are at. So, our focus as we get going again will be, how do we get rid of rust without playing games? Other than that, fielding and batting will be the focus.

“We struggled batting last year at State so I’d like to see us avoid a repeat performance this year. Much like (the) 12s, we just need to work on us,” he said. “That’s what we can control.”

The 18s’ top pitchers have been Alexys Hahne, Olivia Grutsch and Blair Wakeley.

“Alexys is a lock as our number one pitcher: She is solid and will keep you in most every game,” Coach Grutsch said. “I know batters are hitting below .260 against her.

“Olivia has come a long way since last season; she might not have the strikeout numbers that Alexys has, but she’ll throw strikes and rely on her defense to help her out. It’s worked really well for us so far.

“Blair is a lot like Olivia. She can throw strikes and let her defense get outs when the ball is put in play.

“Overall, I think all my pitchers know how they fit into their teams and just want the team to be successful. They are all humble enough to know it’s about the team, not them individually.”

Olivia Grutsch said the break may have come in handy in preparation for the State Tournament.

“I think the break will be good for us — just to get a break and the rest up and everything,” Olivia Grutsch said. “So, then we can hit practice hard, and then be ready for State. We’re not going to be wore out and tired and stuff.

“I feel good about our batting. If we hit good in the game, it carries on in the fielding. But sometimes if we struggle, we struggle fieldingwise. I think we’ll do way better in State this year.”

She added the team seemed to struggle more when girls were coming off of basketball commitments earlier in the day.

“Well, we didn’t lose anyone from last year, so we’ve all experienced State,” Olivia Grutsch said. “It’s different from playing games in (the) regular season.

“From what State was last year and how we’ve been playing this year, I think like we can go and make it pretty far out.”

The 12s had two games this week against Randolph and Wakefield to prepare and came away with back-to-back, come-from-behind wins.

“We were happy with how the girls responded and found a way to win,” Grutsch said of beating Wakefield 9-8. “It was a good win, not a great performance. In Randolph, we played pretty well, but had an inning and a half where we just walked too many batters and fell behind.”

The Penguins rallied for an 11-7 win over Randolph after trailing 6-3 heading into the final frame.

“Both wins were good, but the Randolph win was nice to see ’cause we found a way despite having several heavy contributors missing due to sickness or vacations,” Coach Grutsch said of his 12s, who finished the regular season with a 12-6 record.

“The 12s will have time off till after the Fourth of July, then we’ll have a practice schedule where we’ll work on a little of everything, but we’ll put a little extra focus on batting,” the Penguins coach said. “Bottom line, you need offense at State. Everything else is important, too, but you can’t win if you can’t score runs.

“(The) 12s’ pitchers have been solid most of the year, mostly Kiersten Hans, Ella Kelly and Hadley Grutsch. But we’ve also had several others that have got some innings in, too. They all keep working on it regardless so that’s nice to see. That’ll pay dividends in future years.”

The 10U squad went 0-2 in the league tournament and its season ended, while the 8U and 6U squads are also finished.