Wayne softball coach Megan Moreno is scheduling as many games as possible because she believes it will give her players the best chance of reaching the Class A State Tournament.

The Lady Bulldogs (7-3-1) have played 11 games in two weeks. They also played six practice games in the week before the season began on August 10.

“That’s what the girls want,” Moreno told The Register. “They told me at the end of last year that their goal was to make it to state, so my job is to do my best to help get them there. They know what it takes and they are willing to fight every week to ensure they give themselves the chance to get there.”

The extra work is paying off for Wayne. The Lady Bulldogs have four wins and a tie in their last five games, including a 12-0 run-rule win over Maysville and a 1-1 tie against Empire on Thursday at Devon Park in Oklahoma City.

Natalie Knobloch hit an inside-the-park home run, and Hannah Curtis hit a two-run triple for Wayne in the win over Maysville. In a 5-3 win over Alex on Aug. 17, Knobloch struck out 11, walked none, and had three hits in four at-bats.

“We are playing well right now, but we still have lots of things to get better at,” Moreno said. “Right now, our hot hand is Natalie Knobloch — she’s pitching well for us and has been a great leadoff hitter. We can pretty much count on her to get on base, Taelyn Ringwald to move her with a sacrifice bunt or slap, then Maddie Moreno usually gets a hit to bring in a run. If we can consistently do this, we can still win games.”

Moreno said the bottom half of the lineup is still a work in progress. She’s looking for more production but added “it will come.”

“Defensively we have been pretty solid, obviously pitching plays a huge role in that,” she said.

It will be more of the same this week for the Lady Bulldogs with conference games scheduled at Verden on Monday and versus Central on Tuesday.

The Macomb Tournament follows Thursday through Saturday at FireLake Softball Fields in Shawnee with games scheduled on Thursday against Butner and Cameron.

“We schedule a lot of games because you never know what the weather is going to do,” Moreno said. “It helps in the rankings to play more games.

“We are in more tournaments and festivals this year to help get more than one game per day. We don’t have district games like 2A-6A. Class A is based solely on wins and losses. So, you want to play against teams from all over so you can get ranked,” Moreno concluded.