Out of their own tournament before they were fully into it, the Bryan Lady Vikings will have to settle for taking a lesson rather than a trophy from the Bryan-College Station Softball Tournament.

Victoria Memorial pinned a surprising 3-2 loss on Bryan in a Thursday afternoon play-in game, preventing the Lady Vikings from earning a spot in the 32-team main bracket.

The Lady Vikings were relegated to a round-robin format for the teams that lost the eight play-in games. Bryan began that portion of the tournament by holding off Fort Bend Kempner 9-8 at Veterans Park on a cold Thursday night.

Only a couple of miles from Bryan's home field, Veterans Park seemed much farther away as Bryan played Kempner. The slowpitch-sized field had a temporary fence across the outfield, and the only public address announcements were the distinctly Little League-sounding messages from the concession stand that orders were ready, sometimes while a pitch approached the batter.

Bryan (2-1) paid quite a price for losing the play-in game, which coach Enrique Luna assigned to his team. Luna resisted the tactic of many tournament organizers, who put the host team into a cushy spot in the bracket to improve its chances of making a run at the championship.

"I have a lot of confidence in our team," Luna said. "Not to take anything away from Victoria Memorial, but I think we [would] win that game if we don't make the mistakes, and then everything works out the way it's supposed to.

"We've got to look at the positives. Sometimes when you host a tournament you get a lot of pressure. Now we really don't have any pressure. It's all about us getting better."

The Lady Vikings will return to Veterans Park for two games Friday, facing Lockhart at 10 a.m. and McKinney Boyd at 2 p.m.

Bryan showed no ill effects from the Memorial loss in the early going against Kempner (1-2). The Lady Vikings scored eight runs as pitcher Jennifer Kasper sailed through the first three innings.

Freshman catcher Reagan Boenker made her first varsity start and drove the offense with doubles to each gap in the second and third frames, producing three of her four runs batted in.

"She's a great ballplayer," Luna said. "We've been kind of waiting for her to break out. I think it was huge for her to come through in the clutch both times."

Ashley Lara also had an RBI double during Bryan's five-run third inning, which included a run-scoring single by Patty Gorzycki.

The Lady Cougars scratched out two runs in the fourth on a leadoff walk, an RBI double by Fitima Alvizo and a throwing error.

Kempner threatened to turn Bryan's bad day into a nightmare by scoring six runs in the top of the fifth. The Cougars capitalized on a leadoff error by getting the next five batters on base with four hits and a walk. But Kasper (2-0) preserved the lead by retiring three consecutive batters.

The game ended in the middle of the fifth because of the tournament's 1-hour, 45-minute time limit.

"I'm proud of how we came out on fire, although we made it a little interesting toward the end," Luna said. "Kasper did a great job of getting an out there and finishing off the game."

In Bryan's first game of the day, Emily Peirce struck out nine batters, but Memorial scored a run because of an error and got another on a bases-loaded walk. The Lady Vikings stranded eight runners and cost themselves a couple of runs with base-running blunders.

Gorzycki had a single, scored a run and drove in a run against Memorial. The senior leadoff hitter has at least one hit, run and RBI in each of Bryan's first three games. Sophomore Megan Kraatz drove in the other run for the Lady Vikings.

Victoria Memorial 3, Bryan 2

Bryan 000 000 2 -- 2 5 3

Memorial 000 120 x -- 3 3 3

Emily Peirce and Jennifer Saxby. Angela Robicheaux and Marley Moehrig. W -- Robicheaux. L -- Peirce, 0-1.

Bryan 9, Kempner 8

Kempner 000 26 -- 8 6 4

Bryan 125 1x -- 9 5 2

Jennifer Kasper and Reagan Boenker. Micayla Sorosiak, Bethany Munoz (3), D.J. Rodriguez (3) and Christina Eberhard. W -- Kasper, 2-0. L -- Sorosiak. 2B -- Kempner: Fitima Alvizo. Bryan: Ashley Lara, Reagan Boenker 2. Time: 1:48.

BCS Tournament Scores

Thursday

Play-in games

Eagle Pass 7, Ft. Bend Kempner 1

Magnolia West 7, Lockhart 6

Southlake Carroll 10, Copperas Cove 9

Nedeland 11, San Antonio Holmes 3

Royse City 3, Alvin 0

Woodlands College Park 9, San Antonio Reagan 1

Ft. Bend Bapstist 2, McKinney Boyd 0

First Round

Victoria Memorial 9, Pflugerville Hendrickson 6

Corpus Christi Moody 2, Conroe Oak Ridge 0

Huntsville 5, Eagle Pass 0

Austin SFA 9, St. Agnes 2

Ft. Bend Elkins 8, San Antonio Clark 0

Magnolia West 8, Tomball 5

Southlake Carroll 5, Midland 1

Houston Bellaire 4, Round Rock 0

Ft. Bend Clements 9, Temple 1

Nederland 2, Magnolia 1

Austin Bowie 8, Royse City 1

Pasadena Dobie 4, Plano 3

Clear Brook 4, Round Rock Westwood 1

Alvin Manvel 3, Ft. Bend Baptist 0

Wylie 9, Baytown Sterling 0

Round Robin

Alvin 10, Holmes 1

Lockhart 10, Copperas Cove 0

McKinney Boyd 2, SA Reagan 1