The Holtville softball team got a taste of a tournament environment over the week at the Strike Out Cancer tournament in Alexander City.
The Bulldogs played a flurry of games over the course of the week. Before even competing in Alexander City, Holtville took the area crown over Brew Tech in a 12-2 win. However, the Bulldogs opened the tournament by dropping the first three games against Benjamin Russell, Beauregard and Moody before capping off the tournament with a 7-0 win in a rematch against the Wildcats.
Although facing its fair share of ups and downs, head coach Reese Claybrook knows how beneficial it is to compete in a tournament against teams they hadn’t faced before.
“It's extremely beneficial,” Claybrook said about participating. “All four of the teams we play this weekend, we haven't seen this year. So getting to see some new pitchers, some new hitters, kind of figuring out game plans along the way, is very beneficial. And then also as far as getting all of your pitchers some looks, all of your hitters and really kind of seeing who's clicking at the right time with the best together, just really allows you to polish the things up before you head into the postseason.”
One of the aspects of Holtville’s game Claybrook was happy to see was the team’s fight until the very end. Although the games themselves did not follow the typical seven innings and were limited to just over an hour, he saw his girls continue to put up runs and timely hits in crunch time.
“I'm pleased, especially the last few games, by the way we responded late in the game,” Claybrook said. “(I’m) starting to see some emotional intelligence, those kinds of things out of girls.”
For the Bulldogs, the Class 5A Area 5 tournament will kick off this Saturday on their turf. Claybrook knows the degree of difficulty is going to get rough if they hope to make it fair, but still wants to see his girls play with a competitive nature.
“The biggest thing I want to see is willingness to compete,” Claybrook said. “That's kind of been our edge throughout the year. We've had games where we've gotten down and things like that, right and they're still in each other's corner. It's postseason ball, which you play the game for, the other teams are gonna want to be there. I want to be competitive and be able to pick each other up and control your emotions and understand that aspect of that.”
