Jackson, Central have tough time in tourney

It was a long weekend for the Jackson and Central softball teams in the 12th annual Cor Jesu Charger Invitational in St. Louis County.

The two teams combined for just one victory in eight games. Jackson finished sixth out of the eight teams, while Central was the only team without a victory.

"I think, in the long run, it might be good to play the competition we see in this tournament," Jackson coach Julie Rushing said. "But we have girls coming from a lot of different summer teams and it usually takes us time to gel at the beginning of the season."

The Indians' lone victory came in the final pool play contest Saturday morning as they defeated host Cor Jesu 6-4.

Jackson won in come-from-behind fashion with three runs in the fifth inning. Roxanna Miller drove in what proved to be the winning run. Jackson added an insurance run in the sixth inning and that was enough run support for Darla Mangels, who went the distance on the mound.

Jackson sophomores Amanda Pitts and Jessica Pitts combined for five hits to lead an 11-hit attack. Amanda had three hits, while Jessica had two hits and scored a pair of runs. Miller also had two hits.

But the Jackson bats were silenced the rest of the tournament.

The Indians scored no runs -- and had just three hits -- in pool play games Friday against Lindbergh and MacArthur (Okla.).

The Indians had only three hits in a 6-1 loss to Verdigris (Okla.) in the fifth-place game.

"It's tough when you can only muster six hits in three games," Rushing said. "But we also had a ton of errors in the tournament. We seemed at times to have a hard time focusing on defense and at this level you have to be able to catch the ball."

Central finished the tournament 0-4.

Central lost pool play games to Jefferson City (7-0), St. Louis Notre Dame (9-6) and Verdigris (3-1). Central had a 6-0 lead against Notre Dame.

Cape then fell to Cor Jesu 6-1 in the seventh place game.

MacArthur (16-0) posted a 3-2 win in eight innings over Jefferson City, Mo., in the championship game.