The West Platte softball team (11-9) will enter districts as a top-4 seed for the first time since 2019 and will look to earn its first postseason win since 2016 as the Lady Blue Jays are the No. 4 seed in the Class 2 District 7 Tournament.
West Platte’s Emily VanNatta has been one of the Lady Blue Jays main pitchers this season en route to earning the No. 4 seed in districts.
West Platte closed the regular season in a tough Benton Tournament, having multiple errors and falling in all three contests on Oct. 8. The Lady Blue Jays started with a matchup with Polo (18-0), getting outhit seven to three and losing 9-4 after having five errors.
West Platte went on to Maryville (9-15) next and went down 2-0 in the first inning. The Lady Spoofhounds added two runs in the top of the fifth inning and the Lady Blue Jays immediately matched that when Sophie Grier had a 2-run home run – her first career homer – over the center field fence in the bottom of the inning.
Maryville crossed home plate four times in the top of the sixth inning and went up 9-2 in the top of the seventh inning. Grier had another RBI in the bottom of the seventh inning on a line drive to right field and West Platte lost 9-3 as it committed seven errors in the contest.
West Platte had four errors in the final game of the tournament, this time coming against Benton (18-7). Despite the miscues, the Lady Blue Jays scored the opening five runs of the game in the first four innings.
With a 2-0 lead entering the fourth inning, West Platte opened the inning with five straight hits which started with a triple by Colby Shepardson. Emily VanNatta sent Shepardson home with a single to left field and then Hailey Deffenbaugh had an RBI double on the next at bat.
Peyton Edmonds and Laura Hill both singled with Hill’s ground ball to left field sending Edmonds home to push the West Platte lead to 5-0. Benton cut the lead down to two after scoring three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning.
With two outs and one runner on in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Lady Cardinals strung together four consecutive singles to take an 8-5 lead. West Platte was unable to respond and Benton added one more run to win 9-5.
The Lady Blue Jays haven’t had a ton of postseason success in past years with five straight first round exits. The last time West Platte won a district game was Oct. 5, 2016, when it took down Pattonsburg 6-3 in the Class 1 District 14 Tournament while the Lady Blue Jays entered the day with only one win on the season.
West Platte will enter this postseason with a matchup with Plattsburg (13-11) – who the Lady Blue Jays defeated 5-4 on a walk-off home run by Sam Baker in eight innings on Sept. 29 – on Oct 12 at 6:30 p.m. at Perkins Park in Plattsburg. With a victory, West Platte would move on to the semifinals to take on North Platte (21-3) on Oct. 13 with the district championship scheduled for Oct. 15 at noon.