Bianca Duran and Amanda Jones tossed shutouts, but it was freshman Kasey Cash who went to the bank both offensively and defensively in lifting the Western Nebraska Community College softball team to a doubleheader sweep over Trinidad State Junior College on Thursday at Volunteer Field.
In the opener, Duran threw eight strong innings before Cash delivered a eighth inning, 250-foot home run that sky-rocketed over the scoreboard in left field for the 1-0 win.
The second game saw Amanda Jones scatter six hits while striking out three in leading the Cougars to the 3-0 win. Both games were conference wins, pushing the Cougars to 6-2 in conference play and 18-14 overall.
While Cash went money with the home run swing to lead off the eighth inning, the real reason for the Cougars’ wins was defense. Cash was involved in two clutch double plays, one in each game, that helped spark the team.
But, Cash wasn’t the only one that turned in sparkling plays on defense. Aria Agle robbed Jacqueline Booz of a home run in the second game, while Mariah Faifer turned a double play in the first game to thwart an early Trinidad rally.
“The defense was big. Without defense we can’t get anywhere,” the freshman from Wellington, Colo., said. “The defense was solid throughout the games and everyone has to be working with everyone to make good plays. The double plays helped a lot.” Cash said that they needed these wins the past two days to rebound from a rough Spring Break trip.
“Today’s wins felt really great. We had to come out with a the wins because we had a tough week in Arizona,” she said. “We also played Trinidad a few weeks ago [and split] and we just wanted to come out and do the best we could to get two wins. I think we played good defense and fought for our wins.”
Pitching also played a huge part in the win. Duran picked up the win in the opener, going eight strong innings in scattering eight hits while striking out three. Duran’s counterpart Kaycee Prevedel also was tossing a gem. The Trinidad freshman struck out 16, while tossing a two-hitter.
The first game was a defensive gem. Trinidad State had lead-off singles in the third and fifth but each time the Cougar defense thwarted any type of score. In fact, WNCC failed to allow one Trinidad runner touch third base in the opener.
Prevedel and the Trinidad defense was also stopping any type of Cougar Rally. Prevedel, in fact, had a no hitter going through five innings. That was until the sixth when Bree Bitton unleashed a lead-off of double. WNCC, however couldn’t manufacture a run.
Both teams went 1-2-3 in the seventh setting up the extra inning. Trindad had two singles, but a clutch double play by Cash robbed the Trojans of getting any runs.
That set up the dramatic eighth and it was Cash that led off the inning. Cash worked the count to full and on the next pitch she took the inside pitch and lifted to the moon for the game winner. Cash knew when she stepped up that all she had to do was make contact to get on base.
“When I went up to bat, I knew I had to do something to help my team pull out the win,” she said. “When it went into extra innings, I just thought about getting a base hit. The right pitch came, I swung and it felt good. The pitch was just on the inside corner. I hit the pitch and I took off and when I rounded first, I saw it was over and made me excited.”
The second game was also a defensive gem for the Cougars as they again thwarted Trojans run-scoring attempts. The biggest threat came in the fourth when Booz and Caitlyn Reid had back-to-back singles. Jones then got out of the inning by inducing three straight fly balls, two to the infield and the third out to left fielder Aria Agle.
After the huge defensive stand in the fourth, the Cougars finally cracked the scoreboard with a single in the bottom of the frame. Jocelyn Stubbs earned a lead-off walked and scored two batters later on a double by Agle for the 1-0 lead.
WNCC added two insurance runs in the fifth. Sarah Hawryluk led off with a slap single and scored on a Gabi Palacios triple. Palacios came around to score on a sacrifice fly my Mariah Shepherd.
The Cougars pounded out seven hits in the second game. Hawryluk went 2-for-4 with two singles, two stolen bases and a run scored. Stubbs also had a good game, going 1-for-1 with two walks and a run scored.
WNCC, 18-14, will be back in action this weekend as they host Otero Junior College on Saturday and Lamar Community College on Sunday in conference doubleheaders. First pitch for both contests is slated for 2 p.m.
“This weekend we need to string together more hits and keep our defense solid,” Cash said. “If we do that, we should do well and pull out four more wins against Lamar and Otero.”
Game One
Trinidad 000 000 00 – 0 6 1
WNCC 000 000 01 – 1 2 1
WP – Bianca Duran; 2B – Bree Bitton; HR – Kasey Cash
Game Two
Trinidad (12-8) 000 000 0 – 0 6 2
WNCC (18-14) 000 120 x – 3 7 2
WP – Amanda Jones; 2B – Aria Agale; 3B – Gabi Palacios
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