By Coach Heather Struve
After having a rough couple of games the previous two nights, the Wolverines came out and had a spectacular day on Saturday June 5 at the Sioux City West Tournament. The first game of the day we got the 9-7 win over Class 2A 12th ranked West Monona! South O’Brien came ready to play and only committed one error the entire game. Grace Fuhrman got the win by allowing seven hits and six runs (4 ER), striking out five and walking four in 5-1/3 innings. Kenna Bauer earned the save, throwing the last 2/3 inning and giving up no hits, 1 unearned run and walking one. Both pitchers did an excellent job of keeping it around the zone and hitting spots today.
South O’Brien was the visitor in this game and got on the board with a run in the first. Willa Sickelka walked, stole second and was hit in on a triple by Annika Jenness. West Monona would take a 2-1 lead though in the bottom of the first off of two hits and a walk.
In the second inning the Wolverines regained the lead 4-2. Fuhrman led off with a base hit and was replaced by courtesy runner Karlee Warnke. Maddie Johnson walked and Elizabeth Grimm came in to run for her. Bauer reached base on an error by the third baseman and Warnke scored on the play. With one out Hannah Dau brought in two runs on a single. West Monona would not score in the bottom of the second. In the third South O’Brien did not score, but West Monona cut the lead to 4-3 off of a couple of singles. And in the fourth inning West Monona scored another run to tie the score at 4-4.
In the top of the fifth South O’Brien pushed a run across the plate to go ahead 5-4 when Jenness singled, stole second, reached third on a passed ball and scored on a base hit by Kaylee Jacobs. The Wolverine defense would hold in the bottom of the fifth as Fuhrman put them down in order 1, 2, 3.
The Wolverines had a big sixth inning and scored four insurance runs to go up 9-4. We had five hits that inning, including doubles from Bauer and Schreck and singles from Dau, Sickelka and Jacobs. It looked like South O’Brien was in good control of the game and there was only 5 minutes left, due to the 90 minute time limit in tournaments, but West Monona made a game of it by scoring three more runs. The game finally ended on a ground out to Dau at shortstop.
Jenness was the leader on offense, going 3-for-4 with a triple and two singles, a run and an RBI. Dau and Jacobs each hit two singles. Dau had three RBI’s and scored a run. Jacobs had two RBI’s. Schreck and Bauer each laced a double. Schreck had an RBI and scored a run. Bauer scored two runs. Sickelka had a hit and scored two runs. Fuhrman hit a single and her courtesy Karlee Warnke scored a run. This game was a great confidence builder for our girls. We did all three parts of the game well! We hit the ball hard, pitched well and played great defense behind our pitchers. It was a fun game to be a part of.
S. O’Brien
1 3 0 0 1 4 0 – 9
W. Monona
2 0 1 1 0 3 0 – 7