It started with a bang and ended with a whimper.
In Team We Can’t Hit Deadlines’ quarterfinal playoff matchup Wednesday, the bottom of the first inning saw a parade of power: a triple by Fouad Egbaria, followed by three straight home runs from Chris Pullam, Joe Coughlin and Derek Wolff. The burst of hitting gave the WCHDers an early 4-3 lead.
Unfortunately for the fourth-seeded WCHDers, it would be their last lead of the game. Scared Hitless would follow up the inning with four, four, seven and three runs in the remaining four innings, dropping the WCHDers 22-12 and ending what had been a surprisingly successful season.
Wolff, the first-year manager, looked back on the season positively, calling this squad a “competitive” one.
“We had some mental lapses and we should have played better defense,” Wolff said. “Overall everyone competed, no one ever gave up.”
Despite going into the final frame needing 15 runs to win, Wolff praised his team for continuing to fight. While it ultimately was not enough, they scored four in the bottom of the fifth.
“I’m proud of everyone’s compete level this season,” Wolff added.
The WCHDers showed resilience all year, coming back to win games and hanging on to win close ones. But sloppy defense plagued them all season long — tonight wasn’t much different. Scared Hitless was certainly a misnomer, as they were neither scared nor hitless at the plate on a muggy evening in the city.
Compounding WCHD’s defensive struggles, the Scared Hitless hitters managed to beat defensive shifts, blooping shots just over the heads of outfielders playing shallow. Then, they bombed shots toward Irving Park Road, well over WCHD outfielders’ heads.
Time after time this season, defense failed the WCHDers, although the offense was rarely ever potent. WCHD usually found success when it was able limit its opponent’s offense and win lower-scoring games. But when opponents scored 10-plus runs, WCHD was 1-3 this season.
With the No. 1 seed losing last week, the WCHDers were optimistic about a potentially long playoff run. But summer league softball is an unforgiving game, one in which one’s best is often not nearly enough and hubris leads to defeat in a tidy 60 minutes.
In any case, after a winless 2015 season, the WCHDers catapulted into contention in the span of one offseason, going 3-3 in the regular season and capturing a No. 4 seed for the playoffs. There’s something to be said for improvement.
Looking to 2016, Wolff identified what will likely be the focal point of spring training.
“We just have to get better defensively,” he said. “Have to get better defensively. … Too often this year we found ourselves down too many runs and that just starts with the defense. That’s everywhere, that’s 1-10, every single position.”
Several 2015 players returned to have strong 2016 seasons — but other players, some new and some not, made major contributions, Wolff said. He lauded Matt Yan and Megan Maginity’s hitting, and Tahira Merchant’s game-clinching catch earlier this season, among others. Chris Pullam added a power bat and solid outfielder, while Kirsten Keller added strong fielding and hitting (despite some bad luck on hard-hit balls).
There were highs, there were lows. In the end, only one team can end its season with a win. This season, it wasn’t WCHD.
Next season? Who knows.
That’s why they play the games.