Great U10 Westwood Softball Season Ends With Loss

On Tuesday, July 26 and Wednesday, July 27 (I'll explain in a minute!) the Westwood Cardinals U10 softball team ended their summer season with a tough 20-13 playoff defeat at the hands of Wyckoff at Westvale Park. 

As these two teams are now used to, this game was interrupted and played on different days -- this time by rain and lightning -- forcing a stop in play and continuation the next day. On Tuesday, Wyckoff started things off with four quick runs in the first. Westwood responded with four of their own to tie the game (Sam L and Shannon M had RBI singles, and Lauren B and Annaliese G drove in runs with bases loaded walks). Wyckoff came right back with two in the second and one in the third to make it 7-4. That's when the storm came, sending both teams home early.

The next night, Wyckoff picked up where they left off with three runs in the fourth to make it 10-4. Westwood got one back in the fifth (bases loaded walk by Jillian P scored Delaney F), but Wyckoff picked up two more in their half of the sixth for a commanding 12-5 lead. The Cardinals, however, had some fight left in them in the bottom of the sixth. Patient bats took advantage of seven walks, before Molly M unloaded a three-run triple down the right field line to tie the game at 12. 

Unfortunately, that would be the end of the highlights for Westwood. Wyckoff's bats were too much for the Cardinals to handle all season long, and they answered Westwood's rally with eight runs in the seventh to make it 20-12. Westwood tried to get a rally going in the bottom half, but all they could muster was one run (Ally D's RBI single drove in Tina F) to complete the scoring.

Pitching-wise, Kaitlyn K delivered a strong performance in relief, getting out of a bases loaded jam in the fourth by striking out Wyckoff's No. 4 and 5 hitters.

Despite the playoff loss, it was a successful first season of travel softball for this group of girls, playing for the first time in the Midland Park Summer Softball League. An 8-5 record and a fourth seed playoff berth is nothing to sneeze at when you consider that none of these players had ever played beyond rec softball before. Rainouts and steamy hot nights aside, the girls had a lot of fun -- anyone sitting nearby to hear their inventive chants could attest to that -- and really seemed to enjoy the stiff level of competition throughout the county. In every game, they showed tenacity and team spirit battling back, or surging ahead of the competition. They learned a ton about the fundamentals of the sport, how to think strategically during the game and how to play together as a team. The experience will be invaluable when they come back next summer and do it all over again. See you all next spring and summer!