This spring break, the Normal West varsity softball team traveled to Florida to play regular season games against four different high schools, and finished with a 2-2 record on the road trip.

Their stay in Florida also included a day trip to Disney World.

“It was the best spring break I’ve ever had before,”said junior catcher Jess Jacobs.”We all had a lot of fun both playing against good teams and just having an all around good experience together.”

In their first game, they took on Bartow High School Yellow Jackets, who are state ranked in Florida. Entering the contest, Bartow had already played 3 times the amount of games that the Wildcats had.

After completing a scoreless first inning, the Blue Jackets put up 3 runs on the board in the bottom of the second.
The Wildcats did not score until the top of the 6th inning, and by that time they were still down 7-1. Bartow then scored 5 runs in the bottom of the 6th to complete the game by mercy rule.

Immediately following that game, Normal West then took on the Hardee High School Wildcats, and won their first game on the trip.

Hardee scored first, by earning 1 run in the top of the third inning, but then Normal West fired back in the bottom of the fourth, and took the lead with 3 runs. No more runs were scored in the game as the West Wildcats took the victory with a 3-1 score.

The team then took the rest of the day off, and awaited two more games on the next day.

“Getting a win against a team we’ve never heard of was pretty cool,”said first baseman Lauren Sholtis,”it was definitely a confidence booster for the rest of the week.”

After day one, the Wildcats then got up early again to take on the Lake Region Thunder out of Eagle Lake, Florida.
The Thunder put 3 runs on the scoreboard early, and maintained that lead until the end of the game. Normal West scored two runs in their effort, but surrendered the game, 4-2.

After their second loss of the week, the Wildcats then took on the Bloodhounds from Auburndale, Florida.
In the Wildcat’s final game in Florida, runs for each team came in bunches. The game remained scoreless until the bottom of the 4th, where the Wildcats scored all 6 of their runs.

The Bloodhounds then responded in the top of the 5th with 5 runs, and the score never changed after that, with the Wildcats holding on to win 6-5.

After the spring break finale, the Wildcats left Florida with an overall record of 4-4 for this season.