The #7 (2A) West Fork softball team is preparing for its second consecutive and all-time state tournament appearance, having advanced with Monday’s regional final win over Central Springs.
With six players returning this year from last year’s state tournament team, Head Coach Sadie Winfrey says expectations were high, and they were able to take care of business.
“It’s not really something that we talked about,” Winfrey says. “I think it’s moreso just not looking too far ahead from the start. We knew we had returning players coming back, and we knew we had some strong ones coming in to fill in as well. So just playing our best and doing our best got us to where we are.”
After a sour end to last season with shutout losses in both the first round and consolation game at the state tournament, catcher Abby Schoning says the team took offseason preparation seriously.
“Last year when we got to state, it didn’t go the way that we wanted to, and we all had that fire under us since last season,” Schoning says. “We all went to open gyms in the winter time. We went to a team camp at DMACC. We all put in the work in the offseason to get to this point and continue to push ourselves throughout the season too because we wanted it so bad.”
They’ll take on Durant in a 2A quarterfinal Tuesday at 12:45 p.m. on 104.9 KLMJ.
