MOORE — When Westmoore’s fastpitch season began, coach Jenny Rollins knew her young team would have times when they looked good and times when they struggled.
Rollins saw both sides this weekend during the Southmoore-Moore Fastpitch Festival. Playing on the Southmoore side of the bracket, the Jaguars went 2-2.
“We had a tough day on Friday, but came back on Saturday and played really well,” Rollins said. “I am proud of my girls.”
No. 11 Westmoore opened the event Friday by losing 4-2 to No. 3 Broken Arrow. This came a week after the Jaguars knocked off the defending 6A state champs 4-2 at the Broken Arrow fastpitch tournament Aug. 20.
After losing to BA, the Jags fell 7-3 to No. 7 Owasso. It wasn’t the start the team had hoped for.
“At this point there are no easy games,” Rollins said. “The way it is this year it seems as though anybody can win on any given day. You cannot show up anywhere assuming you will win.”
Westmoore came back Saturday and beat No. 9 Tulsa Union 5-1 and shutout Lawton Eisenhower 4-0.
“I will say that the one constant we had this weekend was Bethanie Young,” Rollins said. “In the circle, she did an outstanding job. However, my team knows that they do not win games by the solid performance of one player, that they win games when they play as a team.”
The Southmoore-Moore Festival has in a short time become one of them more competitive fastpitch tournaments in the state. With top tier teams from the east and west side of the state, it provides competitors a chance to gauge where they are at early in the season.
“It is very beneficial,” Rollins said. “Our schedule has allowed us to have already played Broken Arrow twice, Jenks, Sapulpa, Union, Owasso and other teams that normally we wouldn’t see until the end of the season. This schedule prepares us for the end of the year. We don’t have many, if any, easy days on our schedule. We built our schedule to play the best we could find out there, not to pad our record.”
Westmoore (11-5) will host Putnam City at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
First loss
Despite collecting four victories, last week wasn’t a good one for the sixth-ranked Moore Lions.
After smashing Del City 18-0 Aug. 23, the next day they suffered their first loss to crosstown rival Westmoore. The 5-4 defeat ended in nine innings when the Jaguars scored three runs in the bottom of the inning on starting pitcher Bryanna Nunley.
Moore’s Tianna Gutierrez went 3-for-3 with two walks. Nunley pitched a complete game, and allowed nine hits, five runs and fanned six in the loss.
Moore returned to action Friday in the Southmoore- Moore Festival. They easily handled Eisenhower 16-0 and shutout Union 1-0.
But Broken Arrow had their number Saturday and handed them a convincing 6-2 loss. The Lions bats went cold as the team batted .269.
Moore rebounded to beat Owasso 7-5 to close out the festival. Caiti Hall knocked in two runs while Stephanie Couser scored twice.
The Lions (9-2) travel to Midwest City Thursday to face the Bombers.
Michael Kinney 366-3537 Mkinney@mooreamerican.com
