Wayne softball coach Megan Moreno’s team had a tough week on the diamond.

The Lady Bulldogs lost 7-6 to Rush Springs on Sept. 8 and then lost a pair at the Sterling Shootout by scores of 14-0 to Mangum September 10 and 5-3 to Rock Creek September 11.

While Wayne (14-10-1, 5-1) is tied for first place in the Southern Plains Conference, there is plenty of room for improvement with postseason play looming, Moreno told The Register.

“We are playing some really bad ball right now,” she said. “Which is not good considering we have playoffs coming up.”

The Lady Bulldogs have conference games scheduled for Monday, Tuesday and Thursday followed by districts, which Wayne will host September 24-25.

Wayne played well at Rush Springs and led 6-4 in the bottom of the seventh inning. But the Lady Redskins scored three runs off Maddie Moreno with the last coming on a solo home run.

Moreno pitched a complete game with eight strikeouts and added three hits, including a triple. Hannah Curtis and Lexi Pounds each knocked in two runs for Wayne, which left eight runners on base and had players strike out.

“Again, another loss due to us not capitalizing when we needed to,” Megan Moreno said.

The coach called the loss to Mangum “awful” because the Lady Bulldogs had to play without starters Natalie Knobloch, the team’s best pitcher, and Audra Watts, who is Moreno’s best outfielder and one of her best hitters.

Knobloch and Watts also run cross-county and were told they had to attend three meets to qualify for regionals, Moreno said.

“That hurt the team morale and put players in positions they don’t normally play,” she said. “It down poured every time we took the field, the pitcher couldn’t get a grip on the ball, lots of walks, passed balls, and errors when they did hit. Probably the worst we have played all season.”

Wayne was tied 3-3 at the end of regulation in its game with Rock Creek, but the Lady Mustangs scored twice off Maddie Moreno in the extra inning of play to get the win.

The Lady Bulldogs loaded the bases in their final at-bat but couldn’t score.

“I feel like in order to turn things around the players have to buy in,” Moreno said. “They have to be willing to give it their all every game and every at-bat. We can’t have excuses anymore, we have to play well, or we will be ending our season early.”