Willard Lady Tiger softball splits games with Neosho, Nixa in busy week

The Willard High School softball team went 1-1 last week, while the boys soccer team was 1-4 during the same period.
The Lady Tigers hosted Neosho on Thursday, Sept. 12, but fell to the Lady Wildcats, 3-2.
“It was somewhat of a moral victory for us to play a really good Neosho team so close, especially dealing with the injuries that we are,” said head coach AshLeigh Williams. “We did have our chances to pull out the win, but just couldn’t execute when we needed to.”
Neosho scored one run in the first, third and eighth innings, while Willard scored single runs in the fourth and sixth innings.
Maliyah Wells finished the game 2-4 with a run scored; Ryley Ritchey went 1-4 with an RBI, Sara Morris was 1-4 with an RBI,
Mackenzie Davis and Abby McMillin both went 1-3 and Amaya Foster was 1-2 with a run scored.
Sydni Fletcher took the loss, going eight innings, allowing three runs, one earned, on six hits with four walks and seven strike outs.
The Lady Tigers were able to hold off Nixa, 6-4, when they hosted the Lady Eagles on Tuesday, Sept. 10.
“We were lucky to squeak out a win against Nixa,” said Williams. “They are a scrappy team and gave us all we could handle.”
Ritchey, McMillin and Fletcher each had two hits in the win, while Fletcher, Davis, McMillin, Hannah Bishop and Keeley Aaron all had an RBI in the win.
Fletcher got the win, going six and two thirds of an inning, allowing four runs, two earned, on six hits with four walks and four strike outs.
The Lady Tigers are 2-2 on the season. Willard is
scheduled to travel to Webb City on Tuesday, Carl Junction tomorrow and the Kansas City area this weekend.
Soccer
In boys soccer, Willard played five games last week, traveling to Springfield to take part in the Parkview Tournament on Friday, Sept. 13 and Saturday, Sept. 14, made the trip to Waynes- ville on Thursday, Sept. 12 and hosted Republic on Tuesday, Sept. 10.
At the Parkview Tourna- ment, Willard lost to Central 4-1, with their lone goal being scored by Joseph Lupescu. The Tigers also lost to Northeast 3-0 but defeated Poplar Bluff, 5-4. Lupescu scored and Jay Wells each scored two goals and Caleb Kuchta had a goal in the win.
Willard fell to Waynesville 3-1, with Kuchta scoring the Tigers only goal of the game.
“For the first seven to eight minutes, we were on
their side (of the field) and took shot after shot but just couldn’t get one in,” said head coach Tim Magee. “I will say that shot selection and quality of opportunity was better this game than vs Republic a couple days earlier. Sometimes progress comes in small increments and we will take those im- provements gladly.”
Willard hosted Republic but lost to the guest Tigers 1-0.
“The game was pretty evenly matched but one mistake defensively came back to bite us,” said Magee. “Stats show that we had more shots yet we were not very accurate with those shots. That is something that will improve with time and more practice. I was disappointed in the loss but encouraged by the way we played for parts of the game. Hopefully we will be- come more consistent as the season progresses.”