By Coach Heather Struve
South O’Brien came in firing on all cylinders in War Eagle Conference action Friday June 7 at Akron. Jinger Nieuwenhuis hit a two-out double off the left field fence and was replaced by Kelsee Warnke on the bases in the first inning. Warnke scored when the next hitter Brooklyn Edwards drilled a single to right field.
Akron-Westfield matched us with a run of their own in the first inning. Neither team scored in the second inning. In the top of the third, Addison Hedberg led off with a double to center followed by Abby Nelson with a single to put runners at first and third. Nelson stole second on the next pitch. With a 1-1 count Reese Farquhar crushed a three-run homer over the left field fence to put the Wolverines ahead 4-1.
The Westerners scored a single run in the bottom of the third and also a run in the fourth to cut the lead to 4-3. Neither team scored in the fifth.
In the sixth A-W squeaked out two runs to go up 5-4. With one out in the top of the seventh Nelson and Farquhar hit back to back singles, both up the middle, to put baserunners at first and second. The next play would be a bloop off the handle of the bat right over the pitcher’s head towards second base. The Westerner second baseman was squeezing the middle of the field and made a good catch and stepped on second base to make a double play and end the game.
This was a very fast paced, fun game to be a part of. The girls played with a lot of confidence against one of the most premiere teams in the area and almost pulled off the upset.
We had just two errors in the field and outhit A-W nine to five, but the Westerners had four sacrifices to our one. Farquhar lead the offense tonight with the three-run home run, a single and a run. Nieuwenhuis hit a double and a single, with Warnke scoring a run in her spot. Nelson had a pair of singles and scored a run. Hedberg hit a double, had a sac bunt and scored. Edwards had the RBI single and Tawni Wulf had a single.
Edwards has to take the loss, but threw one heck of a game. She gave up just five hits over seven innings. She allowed five runs (four earned), walked three, struck out two and hit one batter. She was definitely locked in tonight and the defense and hitting were there, too. We just came up a bit short against a very good team.
The week’s action put the Wolverines at 6-6 on the season, including 3-3 in War Eagle Conference play.
S. O’Brien
1 0 3 0 0 0 0 – 4
Akron-W
1 0 1 1 0 2 x – 5