Things didn’t go exactly as planned last weekend for the Warrenton softball team in the opening weekend tournament at Troy.

Despite three of the four games being very competitive, the Warriors started the season 0-4 with losses to Timberland (4-3), Battle (13-2), Winfield (3-2), and Hannibal (2-1).

Warriors coach Chad Berrey knows that if his team is going to compete, they’re going to have to generate more offense.

“Offensively, we struggled consistently to square up the ball, string hits together, and push runs across the plate,” he said. “We averaged two runs a game and it is hard to beat tough competition while only scoring a couple of runs each game. Kaylen Reynolds and Kaylin Haas led our team offensively throughout the weekend.”

Reynolds managed three hits in 10 at-bats over the weekend with one run batted in (RBI), while Haas was 3-9 with a pair of doubles and two RBIs. Haas knows that she has an important role on the team.

“My expectation for myself this season is to do my part as a senior and help the team the best I can whether that’s on the field or off the field,” she said. “For the team, everyone has to do their part as well. We are a small team and every single person matters.”

On the mound, pitchers Kathryn McChristy and Kylie Witthaus combined for 39 strikeouts over the weekend, with McChristy allowing just two earned runs in 11 innings pitched. Despite the rough start to the season, Berrey found reasons for optimism.

“As the scorebook did not end up as we would have liked it to, good things did happen this weekend,” he said. “We learned a lot about ourselves and what areas we need to work on so we can be playing the best ball by October (districts). It was easy to see that our girls bonded during this long, hot weekend.”

The performances of some of the more veteran players on the team was also something Berrey liked to see.

“Our upperclassmen (McChristy, Haas, Kiersten Anderson, and Mackenzie Hurst) really shined as leaders and took over when things were not going our way. Multiple times our upperclassmen leaders took initiative to gather the girls and redirect the morale of the team,” Berrey told The Record. “We have been preaching about ‘culture’ for the past four years since the time that these seniors were freshmen. Our 0-4 weekend will not determine the rest of our season, but rather our girls will be playing from now on with a big chip on their shoulders.”