Alyssa Van Beek Races In To Pick Up This Ball Hit To Shallow Center Field, Holding Gehlen Catholic To A Single.

Shortstop Abby Nelson Takes Matters Into Her Own Hands, Beating Gehlen Catholic’s Kenadee Sitzman To The Second Base Bag.

Jinger Nieuwenhuis Went 3 For 4 At The Plate In The Regional Tourney Win Over Gehlen Catholic.

Payton Farquhar Was A Part Of Two Four Run Innings As The Wolverines Topped Gehlen Catholic.

On Friday, June 30 the South O’Brien Softball Team was supposed to have the home field advantage in a Class 1A Region 1 first round game against Gehlen Catholic, but some much needed rain showers came through that morning and the field was unplayable. The game was moved to Gehlen’s Riverview Complex in Le Mars, but South O’Brien was still the home team on the scoreboard.
Shay Hatting came out in the top of the first and threw well from the start. She got their first batter to ground out to her at pitcher and struck out the next two hitters. In the bottom of the first the Wolverines crushed the ball! With one out, back-to-back doubles from Payton Farquhar and Maddie Johnson set the tone for the night. Later in that same inning we got a single from Jinger Nieuwenhuis, a double from Marissa Ebel and a single from Brooklyn Edwards. With all this hitting going on the Wolverines plated four runs to take the early 4-0 lead.
Neither team scored in the second inning. In the top of the third Gehlen pushed one run across the plate to make it 4-1. Gehlen then made things interesting in the top of the fourth when they hit three consecutive base hits to start the inning. They would go on to score three runs and tie the game up at 4-4.
The Wolverines came crashing back with four runs of their own in the bottom of the fourth to go ahead 8-4. The fourth inning was a lot like the first inning. With one out, Reese Farquhar and Abby Nelson hit back-to-back singles and moved to second and third on a sac bunt from Karlee Warnke. Then consecutive singles from Payton Farquhar, Johnson, and Nieuwenhuis pushed the four runs across. Neither team scored in the fifth inning.
In the top of the sixth with two outs Hatting loaded the bases with three walks. Edwards came in to relieve Hatting and the first batter she faced hit a fly to right that scored two runs, but the throw home was thrown by Nieuwenhuis right back to Nelson at shortstop and Nelson ran down the runner between first and second. It was a very heads-up play by our catcher and shortstop and it got us out of a huge jam! In the bottom of the sixth the Wolverines would load the bases, but just could not get the big hit to score. In the top of the seventh inning Edwards struck out two batters and coaxed a fly ball to herself.
Both pitchers threw very well tonight! Hatting got the win and Edwards got the save. Hatting only gave up three hits and six runs (five earned), walked six and struck out six. Edwards gave up two hits and struck out two. Our defense was stellar behind our pitchers, only committing one error on the night. Our left side of the infield, Nelson and Reese Farquhar were in on some nice plays and neither committed an error.
The girls pounded out 11 hits for the night! Nieuwenhuis had a big night going 3-for-4, with a double, two singles, two RBI’s, and a run by her courtesy runner Kelsee Warnke. Payton Farquhar hit a double and a single, had two RBI’s, and scored two runs. Johnson hit a pair of singles, had an RBI and scored two times. Ebel hit the two run double and scored a run. Edwards had an RBI single. Reese Farquhar and Abby Nelson each hit a base hit and scored a run. This was a great team win for us! We came ready to play, despite the change of location. All three parts of the game, offense, defense and pitching were firing on all cylinders tonight! We will now face Remsen St. Mary’s at Remsen at 6:00 on Wednesday, July 5.
Gehlen
0 0 1 3 0 2 0 – 6
S. O’Brien
4 0 0 4 0 0 x – 8