Van-Far hopes this softball season will have a strong end.

Van-Far vs Hermann Photo Gallery

But first, the Lady Indians had a strong finish in their penultimate regular season game on Wednesday by defeating district foe Hermann 7-3 during Pink Out night at home in Vandalia. Van-Far scored all of their runs during a fourth inning that included four of Hermann’s seven errors and earned its fourth victory of the season to surpass last season’s win total by one.

Van-Far (4-17) was knocking on the door in each of the first three innings, having a runner on third base in each frame and even having the bases loaded in the second inning. Senior Dalana Gay, who had one RBI along with Trinity Skwirtz, and one of the team’s two hits along with Mylee Keller, who drove in two runs with her single, said the Lady Indians were confident they could score.

“Knowing we had runners on to start, we came in knowing we could hit the ball,” Gay said. “That helped when we were coming up to our approach in the box, knowing we can hit (Kimber Hale) and we can get on. Let’s score some runs this inning.”

Van-Far struck out on the final out of the fourth inning, but the girls mainly put the ball in play before that. That usually resulted in a hit or an error after Hermann (11-10) was pressured into making a play. 

Reeve Woodall only had to face five batters over the minimum in the first four innings and eventually made it through seven innings for the first time in her varsity career. Woodall allowed three earned runs on seven hits and five walks while striking out six.

“We were all ready and had positive attitudes,” Woodall said.

Head coach Shaylen Bailey said Van-Far’s defense putting zeroes on the scoreboard in the early innings set up the offense well for that productive fourth inning. Instead of playing behind early like many times this season, the Lady Indians had confidence built up to strike first and control the game.

“They were mentally extremely major on the field for the girls,” Bailey said when talking about the effect of those early shutout innings. “We came out and they already had that confidence in themselves that they were going to win this game.”

Bailey said even making contact in the first few innings fed into that confidence because hitting has been a struggle all season long. After Wednesday’s victory, Van-Far increased their scoring average to four runs per game. That is better than the 2.6 runs per game from last year, but there wasn’t a single game within the first 10 games this year where the Lady Indians scored at least five runs. 

Van-Far has had four games scheduled in four days in each of the previous two weeks and had to play its regular season finale the next day at home against Eastern Missouri Conference foe Clopton. Counting the previous seven games, including against Hermann, the Lady Indians scored at least five runs four times. 

“They may have been getting out but just making contact on the ball, and saying ‘Hey, I can make contact and I can hit the ball,’” Bailey said. “It was them using all the things we told them to do all season. Seeing them hit the ball hard is what we wanted.”

Hermann did hit the ball hard a few times against Woodall, but her offspeed pitching disrupted the Lady Bearcat bats enough. Oftentimes, Hermann would lift the pitch up and the ball would be caught by the Van-Far defense after some hang time. 

Woodall was the primary pitcher a season ago for Van-Far due to Gay being out for the season with an injury. Since Gay returned and has been able to take the lion’s share of the pitching duties, Woodall went into Wednesday with five innings in the circle but kept rolling through Hermann’s lineup for the best outing of her career.

“It’s been a little harder getting back into the circle,” Woodall said. “Nights like these make it a lot easier. Being able to come out with confidence and then having a great first inning, striking out people, helped.”

Bailey called Woodall’s changeup “beautiful” and appreciates what she was able during the influx of recent games. The Lady Indians want Gay to be fresh when districts begin next week.

“The couple times we’ve had her on the mound this season, she’s come out ready to work and been doing her best for us,” Bailey said. “Her changeup has always been really and has been one of her best pitches. Tonight, it was on it every single time. Strike every time. I was like, ‘Girl, keep it up. I love it.’”

Van-Far failed in defeating district opponents in its first three tries — facing conference opponents with winning records Elsberry, Montgomery County and Louisiana — but earned its first victory over a district foe against Hermann. Bailey likes having a win like that with the postseason so close as much as she would like a strong ending to another rebuilding season.

“This season has definitely been a building year again,” Bailey said. “The confidence and capacity that the girls have had has grown a lot since last year. I hope that continues through many years to come for the program.”

No matter the results of next week, two of Van-Far’s seniors Gay and Woodall have enjoyed their time in the softball program. They each value the opportunities they had to play on the field in their final seasons.

“It’s been absolutely amazing, especially with last year getting hurt, just having all that support and getting the help to be back to where I was before,” Gay said. “I’m still not fully back, which is sad. But knowing I had all that support and people wanting me to come back just really felt great. You’ve got a lot of friendships and relationships from this team and the people before them. I’m grateful for all of it.”

“Coming back and having all this support and having (Gay) back helped a lot,” Woodall said. “It’s been a pretty good season for us mentally."