With one swing of the bat, Whitney Juneau made her father, Ted, a proud papa and winning coach Saturday at the Patty Heitzman Memorial softball tournament.

Juneau’s two-out, two-run two-bagger helped the U-16 Lawrence Phenix to a 3-0 victory over the Lawrence Hummers at Clinton Lake Softball Complex.

“It’s good to see a timely hit,” Ted Juneau said of his daughter’s double. “She hit it hard and it was big.”

Jillian Hill, a Lawrence High sophomore-to-be, gave two hits and struck out six batters in picking up the victory.

“Jillian pitched really well,” Ted Juneau said. “She threw strikes and the girls played well defensively.”

The Phenix went 2-1 in Saturday’s pool play with a 4-3 loss to the Leavenworth Twisters and a 8-5 win against the Derby Diamonds.

Neither Lawrence Phenix team in the U-14 bracket fared as well as its older counterpart.

The Lawrence Phenix Tanner, named for coach Gary Tanner, lost all three of its games 12-1 to Leavenworth Twisters, 12-5 to Red Hot Chili Peppers and 15-3 to the Wichita Zapp and will be the lowest seed in the U-14 division today.

Lawrence Phenix Riling suffered a similar fate, losing 8-2 to Topeka Chaos, 9-3 to Manhattan Optimist and 7-3 to the Zapp.

“I think it was a little bit of heat and other things,” coach Mike Riling said of his team’s loss to the Zapp. “It’s early in the season and we need to work up some stamina.”

Heat was a major topic of discussion Saturday, but most people were willing to put up with the high temperatures as long as they meant today’s games wouldn’t be washed out. Sunday’s games were canceled at last year’s tournament because of morning thunderstorms.

“At least it’s not predicting rain so it looks like we’re going to get it in,” tournament co-director Martin Johnson and coach of the U-18 Lawrence Vipers said.

Of course, Johnson had little to complain about Saturday. The Vipers won two games in the morning before spending the afternoon at Johnson’s house in the air conditioning.

They returned to CLSC and defeated the Emporia Energy, 1-0, in nine innings and claimed the top seed in their age division.

“For having to play four games the schedule’s been pretty nice,” Johnson said. “We’ll be fresh when we come back. Our pitching’s been solid and we’ve hit the ball well. If we keep doing that we should do well.”

Another who didn’t mind the heat was Kasey Asher, a member of the Vipers and a recent Free State High graduate. Asher said she and others were accustomed to the heat and fatigue after playing doubleheaders during the high school season.

“It was pretty hot, but this is what I like to do,” she said. “It’s a normal day for me and about half of the people that come here to play.”

Even with the better weather, this year’s field consists of 36 teams, down from almost 60 last year.

“There are a lot more tournaments being held this year,” Johnson said. “A lot of them are qualifying tournaments for national bids. Those are always a good draw. Most of the teams we have are return teams that like the tournament.”

Bracket play for U-14, U-16 and U-18 will begin at 9 a.m. today at CLSC and U-12 will begin at 9 a.m. at Youth Sports Inc. Fields. The championships for all four age divisions are scheduled for 4:30 p.m. at CLSC.