Van Buren County wins Fairfield softball tournament

FAIRFIELD — Chelsey Huff was challenged Saturday. She failed that challenge. It may have been the only one she failed as she and the Van Buren County Warriors took the championship of the Fairfield softball tournament after Friday and Saturday games.

As she strode to the plate with the bat in her hand, a voice from the crowd said, “$50, $50 to hit the scoreboard.”

Huff promptly lined a shot to deep center field that hit the fence. The offer was to hit the scoreboard which is in left field and to do that, she needed a home run, not a stand-up double. The offer came from her dad.

“He tried bribing me and when I hit it, I had my home run trot going but my aim was a little off,” Huff said. “We knew there would be tough competition here but looks like we are the better competition.”

Huff and the Warriors had quite a week. It started with Huff’s 7-0 almost-perfect game win, a 9-1 win over New London with a Campbell two-hitter Tuesday, a 6-2 Wednesday loss to 1A’s No. 2 Louisa-Muscatine when Huff fanned eight with two earned runs, 11-0 and 10-0 sweep of Centerville Thursday, Friday’s 5-1 win over Chariton in the Fairfield tourney with a Huff homer and win then a 12-4 win in Keosauqua over Lone Tree, back to Fairfield Saturday for a 2-0, 15 K, no walk, three-hit win over 12-3 Clear Creek-Amana, then a tournament championship, defeating the host Trojans 6-3.

Huff was on task against Clear Creek-Amana.

“Their coach said, ‘I didn’t know you had anybody like that.’ She’s pretty special,” VBC head coach Randy Smith said.

Huff, a senior, pitched three innings and gave up three runs to Fairfield. Sophomore Ally Campbell threw the final four innings, shut the Trojans down and cracked a home run as the Warriors rallied from a 3-0 deficit. Eighth-grade shortstop Callie Kracht kept that rally going with a timely hit.

Fairfield was in the title game because it beat Pekin (3-5) 8-2 Friday, then No. 1 (Class 2A) Wilton (9-2) 10-6 Saturday behind a fourth-inning grand slam from Hannah Simpson that broke a 5-5 tie.

"Bases loaded, the count is 3-2, so I’m thinking base hit or walk to score a run,“ Simpson said. ”But she’s not going to want to walk me, so here it comes right down the middle, and I was licking my lips because sure enough, there it was, grand slam.“

The Trojans started hot in the title game, but cooled off.

"We couldn’t get focused at the plate and their pitchers threw well,“ Fairfield coach Bob Bradfield said. ”We have to give them credit. They are the best team I saw the whole tournament.“

"It sucks not to win our own title, but we have to learn from it and work hard at practice,“ Simpson said.

"Our kids are old enough, they don’t need a learning experience,“ Bradfield said. ”If we haven’t learned by now, we’re not going to. We have six or seven people who started all of last year. We didn’t make plays when we needed to.“

Huff is accumulating records at VBC, enough that Smith said, “I think we’re just going to change the record board’s name and call it the Huff board.“

Huff led 2A in hitting last year, making first team all-state and worked over the winter to improve.

“Not with me, she got her own coach, developed a rise ball and pinpoint control,” Smith said. “I thought she could go Division I as a hitter but she wants to pitch. If she throws like she did against CCA, she could (be DI).”

Huff has already signed to attend William Penn.

Huff has a .549 average and leadoff hitter Isabel Manning is at .429 after going 0-for-7 Saturday. Annabell Cormier is hitting .412, Ivy Davidson .388, Ally Campbell .348, Callie Kracht .333, Tessa Sayre .320.

Huff’s 12 doubles are first in Class 2A, and Cormier’s nine is third. Huff has 13 singles, three home runs and 22 RBI. Her slugging percentage of .961 is 11th. Campbell has three home runs to tie for 19th in 2A.

“Right now, I wouldn’t be afraid of anybody in Class 2A,” Smith said.

Van Buren County has a 14-2 record and the losses are to 2A No. 2 Louisa-Muscatine and 3A No. 4 West Burlington-Notre Dame, which visits Tuesday.

If the Warriors want a conference title, they will need that win.

“Rankings would be nice, but then you put pressure on yourself to stay in it every week, and we just want to win every game, ranked or not,” Smith said.