It was a winless weekend for Van-Far softball.

The young Lady Indians team with new head coach Cameron Huff lost 12-2 at Westran on Friday before losing 13-1 to Class 3 Southern Boone and 9-0 to Class 3 Hallsville on Saturday in the Hallsville Tournament. Van-Far allowed 12 unearned runs in the first three games, including seven during a nine-error game at Westran.

Head coach Cameron Huff said Van-Far can be competitive despite the lopsided results because the team hurt itself too much over the weekend.

“We’re still a step behind,” Huff said. “(On Friday), we had one bad inning where we made seven errors in one inning and gave up eight runs. We beat ourselves. We’re taking small victories. We still have a lot to work on, but we’re getting there.”

Van-Far has allowed at least one big-number inning in each game so far. There was the eight-run second inning at Westran, the six-run first and five-run second against Southern Boone, and a four-run third and three-run fourth against Hallsville. 

“It’s confidence,” Huff said. “We let one error get under our skin. We get upset, and then next thing you know, that turns into three errors or five errors.”

Huff said the competition wasn’t easy, particularly the reigning 22-win team Southern Boone, but Van-Far needs to work on minimizing mistakes. That happens after more repetitions in practice and in games and said that helped the baseball team two years ago in his first year coaching them. The Indians started 4-7 before eventually winning a district championship.

“We’re there but just have to fine-tune some things,” Huff said. “We had a slow start. We’ve got to take baby steps.”

On a positive note, Huff said freshman Kylee Gibson went 4-for-7 over the weekend for an excellent start to her varsity career.