The Lincoln East High School varsity softball team took on the Kearney Bearcats in a double-header at Doris Bair on September 6th, 2022. The Spartans walked into the two games with a 10-3 record looking to bounce back after a loss to Fremont on September 1st.

In the first game, Lincoln East built an early lead through the first 3 innings, homering back-to-back in the third. Starting pitcher, Jordan Bussey, would have a successful game only allowing the Bearcats to score one run. Bussey has been a key contributor for the Spartans in this rolling start for the softball team.

“So the team right now, we have a lot of talent,” Bussey, senior, said. “But, I think what’s gonna get better throughout the season is putting that talent together. I think about it like a jigsaw puzzle, just putting the pieces together.”

The Spartans would hit one last home run in the 5th inning, winning the first game in the double header 9-1.

The Spartans entered the second game of the double-header with high hopes after defeating the Bearcats in game one. Berkley Hatten would give an incredible effort tallying four hits through the game and 2 home runs. The Spartans finished with 4 home runs in the second game, bringing their total to 7 for the day. The Spartans rolled into the 5th inning hot as 3 Spartans including, Kooper Barnes, would come in to score. Despite Kearney’s 7 run effort, they would come up short, and Lincoln East would go on to defeat Kearney 15-7.

“I think we’re on a good track,” pitcher and first baseman, Barnes, said. “We hope to at least make it to state again this year, and go far like we did last year.”

Lincoln East would commit no errors in the second game and would collect a total of 13 hits.

Coach Kingery would attribute the teams’ hot start to their hitting but are still looking for improvement.

“Early on it was really hot hitting, we were swinging the bats really well, but here as of lately, the hitting hasn’t been as consistent, but the pitching has been,” Kingery said. “Hitting is kind of what we’ve been known for, we’ve kind of tapered off, if you saw that last game, we’re kind of playing to the level of our competition a little bit, we need to be more consistent.”

Kingery and the Spartan softball team look to grow on their success from previous years, all while having some fun while doing it.

“They’re a lot of fun, they line dance before games.” Kingery said. “It’s a fun bunch of kids, they’re good kids, they’re sound academic kids, we just got a good group of people.”