Final Reflections on the Varsity Team

After the JV season was over, I was asked to stay on and work the Varsity team through playoffs. Working with the Varsity team has not been my cup of tea this year. It's tough to come work with a team you haven't been with all season because they have their own routine and way of doing things which was completely different than anything I would have done. To get into the playoffs at the end of the season you have to be one of the top 16 teams. Our Varsity squad at Corona barely squeaked in at the last minute at the No.15 seed. Our first game in the playoffs was against the No.2 seed Red Mtn. a team we haven't been able to beat in the regular season. Going into that first game, I feel guilty for saying this, I didn't think we would be able to pull off the win. Much to my surprise we played lights out with a final score of 4-0. Our next game we faced No.7 seed Mtn. Ridge. We had the lead for most of the game but in the 5th inning the score went from 4-2 to 4-5. Giving up those three runs in the 5th was frustrating but the girls didn't seem to be too bothered by it. In the 7th inning we started to rally back. We got girls in scoring position on 2nd and 3rd base but were unable to score any of our runners and the final score was 4-5. That loss was a huge blow to the girls. It's really important to try and stay in the winner's bracket in playoffs because if you can make it all the way to the Pool B championship game the other team from the losers bracket has to beat you twice to move on to the State Championship game. With our team taking a loss to Mtn. Ridge it moved us to the loser's bracket matching us up against the No.3 seed Basha. This is another team we weren't able to beat all season. Basha is in our conference so we get to face them multiple times during the regular season. This game played out much like I thought the Red Mtn. game would have, we lost with a score of 8-2. The season is now over for all teams in the Corona del Sol softball program. Varsity finished with a regular season record of 8-10 and a playoff record of 1-2. This was not the best season Varsity has ever had and I think a lot of it had to do with a lack of team chemistry. They have so much talent but for whatever reason just couldn't get along. This was the complete opposite of the JV team I worked with all season long. JV went 16-2 with a team batting average of .490! Hopefully next season some of my JV girls will move up to the Varsity team and things will be different. Only time will tell....