Loeffler's Link
The Blair Oaks Lady Falcons gather together prior to Saturday's Class 2 state championship game with Bowling Green in Springfield.
In semifinal classic,
Lady Falcons edge
Lathrop in 9 innings
Bumpy, painful finish to a great
ride: Lady Falcons fall in title game
Oct. 21, 2017
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. --- This was a season full of great moments and memories for the Blair Oaks Lady Falcons.
Remember those.
Because it may be a while before you can forget some not-so-great moments from Saturday's finale.
A series of uncharacteristic mistakes, misplays and walks proved costly, as the Bowling Green Lady Bobcats beat the Lady Falcons 6-1 in the Class 2 state championship game at the Killian Complex.
It was a bumpy and painful way for this wonderful journey to end.
"I would be lying to you if I told you we played a good game," Blair Oaks coach Sharon Buschjost said. "I know we didn't play close to our best game and the girls know they didn't come close to playing their best game.
"Having said that, congrats to Bowling Green for a great season. They were the better team today, that's for sure."
Indeed. But there's also this --- every team, be it the Los Angeles Dodgers or the Blair Oaks Lady Falcons --- will have that worst game of the season at some point.
The Lady Falcons just picked the worst possible time to have it.
Junior pitcher Makenna Kliethermes was fabulous all season. She entered the championship game at 22-1 with an ERA hovering around 0.50, and she'd walked just 35 batters in nearly 130 innings of work.
On this day, however, she couldn't get that big out, that big strikeout (even though she did fan 15), when she needed it most. She gave up six runs (three earned) on six hits, but walked a season-high seven --- two of those with the bases loaded.
"I think confidence was an issue," Buschjost said. "This game is tough enough, then when you start lacking confidence, you start thinking too much and it gets in your head a little bit, that makes it really difficult.
"Some things are hard to explain; confidence can be a very delicate thing. Bowling Green came out a very confident team and for some reason, we didn't."
Kliethermes wasn't alone in her struggles. Blair Oaks committed four errors --- two of those came on one play --- that led to three unearned runs and put them behind the eight-ball heading into the late innings.
"We certainly didn't play up to our capabilities, we didn't play to the identity of our team, Buschjost said. "This was not Blair Oaks softball at its best.
"It's not who we were the entire season."
Hardly. But why? Was it nerves, was it just one of those days, or was it something else?
"Those are questions I'm trying to answer myself," Buschjost said. "Was it me not getting them relaxed and ready to play? Was it the pressure of knowing they're a good team and if they don't win, they're going to disappoint a lot of people? I don't know what happened."
The day started on a good note --- Blair Oaks won the coin toss. After that, not much went right.
"You feel pretty good when you win the flip and get to be the home team," Buschjost said. "But the other side of that is that the pressure is on you, as a defense, to have a good half-inning so you feel good about yourself before you come in."
Blair Oaks (28-6) had the best chance to take an early lead, but wasted Hannah Schroeder's leadoff triple in the bottom of the second.
At that point, momentum seemed to fly from one dugout to the other.
"That was a big blow," Buschjost said. "To me, that could have been the difference in the game. It wasn't like we had poor at-bats that inning, like Brooke Boessen ... she could not have hit the ball any harder. I don't think the third baseman even realized she had it."
Third baseman Kaylyn McKee made back-to-back good plays in the frame, leaving it scoreless. Bowling Green (26-4) then scored two runs in the fourth to take the lead for good.
Gabi Deters would later be the focus of the game for not getting a hit, but she led off this inning with a double and later scored on an error. A run-scoring single by Kathy Horner then made it 2-0.
The lone run for the Lady Falcons came in the bottom of the fourth when Boessen --- who delivered the game-winning double in Friday's semifinals --- drilled an 0-1 pitch to right-center for an RBI triple to score Schroeder, who had walked, and make it 2-1.
Another key moment came in the bottom of the sixth. With the Lady Falcons trailing 3-1, Boessen hit a long, loud foul with two on and two out that --- if fair --- would have tied it. The junior fouled off a few more pitches, before taking a called third strike on a borderline pitch --- borderline, at best --- off the outside corner.
"Things weren't going our way," Buschjost said, "and they continued to not go our way.".
The game went sideways for Blair Oaks in the top of the seventh, when Bowling Green --- which won its first state title --- scored three runs on one hit, four walks, an error, a passed ball and a wild pitch.
One of those walks was an intentional pass to Deters, her second free pass of the game. In the fifth, Buschjost had opted to walk the junior with two out and nobody on. But Deters promptly stole second, moved to third when the throw from catcher Sydney Wilde sailed into center field, and scored when the ball was misplayed in the outfield.
Then in the seventh, Deters was intentionally walked with runners on second and third and one out to load the bases. It was still 3-1 at that point, but it was followed by two unintentional walks to force home two runs, before another run scored on an error to basically end it.
"We knew coming into this game that there was one particular hitter (Deters) who was especially dangerous," Buschjost said. "She's the real deal. I talked to the team about not letting one hitter hurt us, but making their entire team do it.
"I gave them the heads-up that if the situation calls for it, I will make the decisions in regards to that (an intentional walk). I wanted them to know it was not from any lack of confidence in them as a team or a pitcher. Obviously, it didn't work out.
"I don't do that if I don't have confidence in my pitcher."
Blair Oaks was making its fourth trip to the Final Four in six years --- the Lady Falcons were also second last year and 2013, and third in 2012 --- in its quest for that elusive second state championship. (The first came in 2009.)
It seemed like this could be the season ... just as it did in those other seasons with those other teams that come up just short.
Just remember what this team did this year, not what it didn't do.
"It's very difficult to try to explain that to them in 15 minutes after a game, because they're feeling terrible," Buschjost said. "I spoke briefly about the game, but then I focused on what a lot of teams focus on --- we win as a team and lose as a team. I tried to emphasize to them that those cannot be just words, especially right now.
"Those words have to actually play out, they have to live them out and support each other. We have to stay together as a team."
Bottom line: Don't let two hours of disappointment wipe out two months of great times.
Thanks for the memories, ladies.