In what likely was the roughest week in recent history for the Oakville Senior High School softball team, the Tigers suffered their toughest loss of the season Saturday afternoon in a 14-0 setback to Hillsboro at the Seckman Invitational.
“In three of our four losses this week, we just did not play well,” Oakville head coach Rich Sturm said. “We had more errors than hits and I’ve got to be honest, this was the third time we’ve had to play Hillsboro this season. But that’s not an excuse for us to lay down and mail it in like we did.”
Oakville starting pitcher Chloe Wolf lasted 11⁄3 innings, giving up five runs on three hits while walking four and striking out one.
“Chloe hasn’t pitched in a year, but we know that she’s going to get better,” Sturm said. “We knew going into the week that we had eight games to play and didn’t want to run Remy Edwards into the ground.”
Marissa Simon relieved Wolf in the second inning and gave up nine runs on six hits in 22⁄3 innings. Simon also walked two and struck out two.
“Marissa’s another player who’s only thrown a handful of innings in her life,” Sturm said. “But to her credit, she still goes out there and battles and is competitive.”
Right fielder Lauren Fussel had the only two-hit performance of the game for the Tigers as the freshman added to her .357 batting average.
“Lauren’s having a great freshman season,” Sturm said. “She’s thrown out two or three people at first base from right field and has got eight or nine assists from right field, which is just insane.”
The Tigers were set to face defending state champion Lafayette Monday — after the Call went to press — Affton Wednesday and Seckman today — Oct. 2.
Today’s game at Seckman will determine the Tigers’ seed in the upcoming Class 4, District 2 Tournament. The Tigers dropped a 4-1 decision to Seckman for their first loss of the season Sept. 3.
“We have got to win Thursday in order to have any claim to the No. 1 seed in districts,” Sturm said. “It’s now all on the team as to what we want to do. It can only get better from here.”
