Gretna's back.
After a time away from the Eastern Midlands Conference (EMC), the Class A No. 1 Dragons are back and the 2024 softball tournament's champions. They beat Class B No. 4 Blair in the final Saturday, 8-0, to remain unbeaten.
“They're a really good team, top-to-bottom,” BHS coach Jennifer Fangmeier said. “They have great leadership, solid defense, great bats and, obviously, in their circle they're very dominant right now.”
Gretna kept the Bears at bay through all five innings at the Youth Sports Complex, producing its own 2-0 lead during the first inning with a home run. The Dragons added a third-inning homer as well, building their lead to 6-0 before adding the last two runs of their run-rule victory during the bottom of the fourth frame.
The loss was Blair's first of the day after a 2-0 EMC Tournament start against Bennington and Class B No. 2 Hastings. Coach Fangmeier's squad beat the Badgers 5-0 first before 10-2 victory against the highly-touted Tigers, who just recently moved up past the Bears in the Omaha World-Herald's rankings.
“We took care of business against Bennington and then, against Hastings, took advantage of any tiny mistakes that they made,” Fangmeier said.
BHS turned the Tigers' miscues into, more than anything, runs.
“Our bats came alive, which was really nice to see,” the coach added.
Laynie Brown scored the Bears' first run against Hastings on a passed ball during the first inning. Taytum Macholan added a two-RBI swing before Brooke Janning's third-inning homer pushed the home team's lead to 4-0.
From there, Blair blew open the game into run-rule territory with a six-run sixth frame. Abby Leggott and London Larsen started off the Bears' highest-scoring inning of the day with singles before Brown's produced her team's fifth run.
Larsen later scored on a double steal before Brown, Kaitlynn O'Neil and Hannah Heuton scored on Emmi Hall's bases-clearing double into right field. Macholan's third RBI of the game then made the score 1-0 for Janning, who earned her second pitching win of the day.
The senior pitcher's first victory in the circle came against the Badgers in BHS' EMC Tournament opener. Hall, meanwhile, plated the home squad's first run against Bennington before Janning later notched a bases-clearing triple.
Altogether, the Bears' lone senior said she was pleased with her team's efforts during the conference tourney.
“I thought we did a great job, especially with a young team,” Janning said. “We went out there confident all three games.”
She credited her catcher, Jacy Schueth, and the rest of her teammates for playing well.
“I thought Jacy did a great job behind the plate,” Janning explained. “Everyone does a great job filling their role, which has kind of been our thing this whole year.”
She said supportive teammates make success enjoyable even when that success is a second-place finish to the EMC-returning Dragons.
BHS SOFTBALL LINE SCORES
Saturday
No. 1 Gretna 8, No. 4 Blair 0, 5 inn.
BHS (16-5) 0 0 0 0 0 — 0
GHS (22-0) 2 0 4 2 X — 8
No. 4 Blair 10, No. 3 Hastings 2, 6 inn.
BHS (16-4) 3 0 1 0 0 6 — 10
HHS 0 0 0 0 0 2 — 2
No. 4 Blair 5, Bennington 0, 5 inn.
BEN 0 0 0 0 0 — 0
BHS (15-4) 0 0 1 4 X — 5
