By Piper Banning
9B News Badger Sports Reporter
Some days, nothing you try seems to work. All you can do is keep trying. In so doing you never lose … you learn. The Badger softball team traveled to Timberlake Wednesday for the opening game of the 2024 Intermountain League Softball Championships, played their hearts out and nothing worked … they fell 26-3.
“We were just having a hard time pitching today,” said head coach Cindy Sumpter. “The team stayed positive but it was a tough loss. We will see what tomorrow brings.”
The Lady Badgers will get on the bus south today and will walk back out on that field, the sting of their loss still fresh. It would be easy for each of them to give up as individuals, to one by one decide to just go through the motions, swallow their emotions and pride and on the way home try to console themselves, “next year.”
But I’ve seen this team. I know these athletes. There isn’t a lady on this team capable of giving a moment’s countenance to such a thought … not one of them could bear it. They are Badgers. They will stand together as one, they will fight as one and, win or lose, they will stand together as one at game’s end.
And when they get home, there will be Badger fans to welcome and embrace them. Because we are one. We are Badgers!