Almost routinely as it has become the past several years, the Windsor Owls softball team has finished the regular season with a winning record heading into their district tournament.

The team’s first assignment will be a tough matchup with the Hillsboro Hawks. The Hawks boast an impressive 17-9 record and came out on top by a score of 5-1 in their contest with the Owls earlier this season.

The team’s goal for the game against Hillsboro was quite apparent based on the score of the last game.

Senior Ally Brickner said, “We are working to put together more runs at the plate.”

However, this task is easier said than done, as Hillsboro’s pitching has a 1.05 earned run average on the season.

“We have proven we can compete with the top teams (Hillsboro and Festus) in the district,” head coach Wayne Montgomery said. “And we had both of them down late in games, but unfortunately fell a little bit short.”

The Owls have confidence that they can pull off an upset.

Brickner said, “Coming out on top of them would be a major upset and hopefully give us the momentum to keep it going.”

And while the team may be playing the role of underdog, the team’s recent play has certainly been sufficient for their goals on offense as they have collected a total of 51 hits in just their last three  games. The hit parade brought 35 runs across for the Owls as well.

The team has gotten contributions from all over their lineup. The team has an four different players with batting averages that currently stand at over .400, topped by Jessica Veselske who is all the way above the .500 mark at .528.

“We have really hit the ball very well. We have a few girls now batting over .400, which is a good problem to have,” Montgomery said.

The team hopes that they can stay hot at the plate and their recent success will be indicative of what is to come.

If there isn’t already high enough stakes in a district tournament game with a rival, it may even add to the significance of such a game when every single game is the potential last of the seniors’ careers. The seniors do not plan on stopping their days of ball just yet, however.

Brickner said,“We want to keep it going as long as possible. Softball has been the highlight of high school for me. We do not want to go down easy.”

The Owls begin district play at 5:30 pm today at Hillsboro. A win today would advance the Owls to the championship game on Thursday.