Cougars vs. Wildcats Softball Opener: Bad Day for Affton Against Eureka

The Cougars met the Wildcats Tuesday at the Affton Athletic Association complex for the start of the 2011 softball season.

While there were a few close plays, Eureka pulled ahead early and defeated the Cougars 15-0.

Both teams were in purple and gold, so the Affton girls wore shorts while Eureka girls wore white pants.

With 13 players on the Affton roster, coach Erica Meyer said six of her starters graduated last year, which left only three returning players. Further, both of the team's two starting pitchers had been injured, so the team's normal catcher was filling in as the pitcher.

"I'm hoping to focus on fundamentals today," Meyer said before the game. "We have a lot of players in new positions. In fact, very few are playing the positions they thought they'd be in."

Eureka racked up 12 runs during the first inning, including a grand slam.

Affton's substitute pitcher also walked in several runs.

Eureka coach Mark Mosley said that his team plans to make a run at the state championship.

"Our team is deep, and they are all players we can trust to put in to the game to do a great job. The players on our bench would be starters on other varsity teams," he said.

In the fourth inning, three Affton batters got solid base hits, and Affton fans rallied for a few minutes. With two outs, Affton had a chance to score, but the runner was thrown out at the home plate. The Cougars never recovered.

Affton does not have a junior varsity softball team this year, so there was no corresponding junior varsity game on Tuesday.