Lampasas catcher Kady Crow cannot make the tag before West junior Brooke Morrison slides into home during the Lady Trojans’ 4-1 win over the Lady Badgers. Chris Munoz has only one goal for his team: Perfection.

Actually, the Lady Badgers head coach has two goals for his team, but they go hand in hand.

“My goal is to go 10-0 in district,” Munoz said. “Of course, the other goal is to win the district [championship].”

Last year, the Lady Badgers won the District 25-4A softball championship, but they did so with a slightly blemished 9-1 record.

Lampasas’ lone loss to Hendrickson late in the 2009 season leaves the squad with room for improvement, but it also sets the bar extremely high for a team that has struggled with consistency during its nondistrict schedule.

The Lady Badgers enter tonight’s district opener against Hutto (LHS, 7 p.m.) with a record of 11-8 after going 6-7 in their last 13 games. Last year at this point in the season, Lampasas was 14-5.

Lampasas’ Tealey Farquhar delivers a hit during the Lady Badgers’ recent loss to West in Gatesville. PHOTOS BY RICHARD AKRIDGE Although it might sound elementary, Munoz believes the solution to the team’s inconsistency is simply to put the ball in play.

“As long as they are hitting the ball and hitting those outside pitches, then we’ll be all right,” the first-year coach said. “Some of the girls we will play can really hit the ball.

“But I think this last game helped get us ready for district [competition].”

If hitting the ball will be Lampasas’ key to success, then the Lady Badgers could not ask for a better lead into district play.

Lampasas recorded nine hits at Boerne Monday afternoon and needed just five innings to put away the home team 13-0.

Sophomore shortstop Hadley Brown fields a ground ball during Lampasas’ doubleheader last Saturday afternoon. The Lady Badgers exploded for nine runs in the second inning and tacked on four more in the fifth to record the shutout.

While they ended the nondistrict portion of the schedule with a bang, just two days earlier the team struggled with up-and-down play.

On Saturday in Gatesville, the Lady Badgers split a doubleheader by beating host Gatesville 3-2 and then losing to West 4-1.

Some might point to the relative youth of the seniorless team as a point of concern, but Munoz has no such worries. He believes his players are so familiar with one another from years of playing select ball together there is no need for a stereotypical senior leader.

He believes he has something even better.

“To me, they are all leaders,” Munoz said. “They all talk to each other, and it has been a big help [to me] that they have been playing together for so long.”

The experience as a group could be extremely valuable as the Lady Badgers progress through the season.

After tonight’s home game against Hutto, the Lady Badgers host Pflugerville Hendrickson next Tuesday. Lampasas travels to Lake Travis for its next game before returning home to play Marble Falls.

Then the Lady Badgers hit the road to play four of their final six games, including three consecutive games away from home.

“It’s a pretty good district,” Munoz said. “We are not going to take anybody lightly.”

As defending district champions, the team cannot afford to slip up because every opponent will be looking to upset the reigning title holders.

According to Munoz, however, that is a good thing.

“It’s a plus,” the coach said. “It’s a motivator for us, and we will have to compete to prove we are district champs.

“It will add a little [drama].”

Should everything go according to the coach’s plan during district competition, the goal will then switch to avenging the team’s early postseason exit in 2009.

The Lady Badgers were stunned in the area round of the playoffs by San Antonio Burbank, tarnishing an otherwise impressive season.

But Munoz is approaching the remainder of the season one game at a time and one goal at a time.

For now, he is only focusing on district competiton.

After that, his attention will turn to perfecting the playoffs.