By Coach Heather Struve
Akron-Werstfield scored a run or two in all but the second inning to get the win over South O’Brien on June 11th in Paullina. A-W uses the short game of slapping and bunting so well that you never quite know what’s coming. South O’Brien did a great job of covering in slap defense, but committed six errors in the field on some routine plays. You have to be able to make the routine plays and play pretty much error free to beat a team like A-W who is ranked seventh in Class 1A.
A-W scored a run in the first and two runs in the third, but South O’Brien came back with a pair of runs in the bottom of the third to close the gap to 3-2. In that inning with two outs, Willa Sickelka reached base on an error and stole second. She scored on a double by Abby Schreck. Schreck then scored on a single by Annika Jenness. A-W picked up a run in each of the fourth, fifth and sixth innings and two runs in the seventh. The Wolverines last run came in the bottom of the seventh when Sickelka singled, stole second, and scored on a base hit from Jenness.
South O’Brien recorded eight hits on the night, a good number against a pair of very good Akron-Westfield pitchers. Schreck had a double, a single, an RBI and a run. Sickelka had a pair of singles and two runs. Jenness hit two singles and collected two RBI’s. Kaylee Jacobs and Kenna Bauer each had a base hit.
Grace Fuhrman pitched well enough to keep us in the game if not for the six errors. She gave up nine hits, eight runs (two earned), walked three and struck out five. We just need to clean up the defense and cut down on the little mental mistakes.
A-W
1 0 2 1 1 1 2 – 8
S. O’Brien
0 0 2 0 0 0 1 – 3