By Coach Heather Struve
The South O’Brien Softball Team was held scoreless for the first three innings of play at Ireton on Monday June 3 and was behind West Sioux 2-0 when their bats finally got going in the fourth inning. The Wolverines recorded five hits during their half of the fourth inning and threw six runs up on the board to go ahead 6-2. The big hit of the inning was when pinch hitter Alli Griebel came to the plate with one out and the bases loaded and she hit a deep fly to left which tipped off the top of the West Sioux left fielder’s glove and dropped over the fence for a grand slam!
The Falcons scored a run in the fifth to cut the lead to 6-3. In the top of the sixth South O’Brien came back with three more runs off of a couple base hits, two Falcon errors, and a sac bunt. The Wolverines also tacked a run on in the seventh to go up 10-3. West Sioux tried to mount a comeback in the bottom of the seventh when they scored two more runs, but Brooklyn Edwards struck out the last batter of the night ending the War Eagle Conference game at 10-5.
Edwards got the win on the mound, giving up nine hits, allowing five runs (all earned), walking two and striking out five. She did an excellent job of making the hitters put the ball in play and letting her defense back her up. The defense committed just one error and looked pretty sharp.
Alli Griebel lead all hitters with her grand slam. Abby Nelson had a good night with a double, a single, two RBI’s and two runs. Jinger Nieuwenhuis also had a pair of hits and her courtesy Kelsee Warnke scored a run. Abby Woodall recorded two singles and her pinch runner Alena Villarreal scored a run. Reese Farquhar, Lindsey Einck and Ashlynn Gunnerson each had a single and scored a run. This was a great team win! We played well in all three parts of the game.
S. O’Brien
0 0 0 6 0 3 1 – 10
W. Sioux
1 0 1 0 1 0 2 – 5