The
17th-ranked Western Nebraska Community College softball played strong defense
and rode the pitching arm of Bianca Duran to pick up two conference wins
against Otero Junior College Friday at Volunteer Field.
Danielle
Hearn had a bases-loaded single in the eighth inning to help WNCC to the 1-0
first game win. The second game saw the Cougars score five times in the third
inning to post the 5-4 victory.
It was
WNCC's 11th straight win, pushing their record to 34-7 overall. The win, more
importantly, moves WNCC into first place in the conference with a 12-2 mark.
Otero, who drops to 41-5 on the year, falls to 14-4 in conference.
WNCC
returns to action today [Saturday] when they host Trinidad State Junior College
in a conference doubleheader at 12 noon at Volunteer Field. Trinidad is 17-13
overall and 8-4 in conference play.
WNCC
coach Maria Winn-Ratliff was pleased with the two wins on Friday.
"Game
one was a pitching duel where Bianca did a great job giving us opportunities to
make plays and we came up with some really nice defensive plays," she
said. "We finally found a way in the eighth inning to score. Danielle
Hearn comes up and doesn't try to do anything special, doesn't try to be a
hero, and just puts the ball into play and we win."
Winn-Ratliff
was pleased of how the team fought back from an early deficit in game two,
including a gutsy pitching performance from Duran, who had two complete games
and threw 232 pitches in the two wins.
"You
have to give Otero a ton of credit. They were resilient. Taylor [Hall] kept
them in the ball game in game one and it came down to a battle with us winning
in the eighth," she said. "Even in the second game, they [Otero]
didn't lose their fight. They came out and they wanted to challenge us. They
scored and got some confidence. But this group kept believing and trusting
themselves, and they did what we needed to do to get the wins. We are going to be happy tonight, but we know
tomorrow is tomorrow and what happened today is over. We have to come back out
and be hungry offensively, we have to play good defense, and we have to have a
good pitching performance."
WNCC had
plenty of scoring opportunities in the first game, especially in the seventh
when they left the bases loaded. At the same time, Otero was limited to baserunners
as not one Rattler touched third base.
The
Cougars finally won the opener in the eighth as Angel Council led off the frame
with a single. Mariah Shepherd came through with a single followed by Shelby
McGraw earning a walk to load the bases. Hearn then came through with a 2-out
single for the win.
WNCC
managed eight hits in the contest. Council went 3-for-4 while Hearn was
2-for-3.
Duran
picked up the win in the circle, scattering four hits, walking two and striking
out seven.
Duran
had another shining outing in game two. After giving up a second-inning 3-run
home run, the flame-throwing, right hander settled in and allowed just three
baserunners in the last four innings. Duran went seven innings in scattering
six hits, walking two and striking out four.
Offensively,
WNCC put together eight hits. The Cougars scored all the runs they needed in
the third inning, scoring five times on four hits. RaVae Herrera got the
scoring started with a 2-run home run to bring WNCC to within 3-2. Otero then walked
both Duran and Kasey Cash followed by a single by Council to load the bases.
Jennifer
Cottle followed with a 2-run single to put the Cougars up 4-3. Mariah Shepherd
added an insurance run, getting a run-scoring single.
WNCC
finished with eight hits in the second game. Lindsey Shiels-Brophy and Cottle
each had two hits. Cottle had a double and two RBIs, while Herrera had the only
home run on the day and two RBIs.
First Game
Otero 000
000 00 -- 0 4 0
WNCC 000
000 01 -- 1 8 0
WP -- Bianca Duran
Second Game
Otero 030
010 0 -- 4 6 1
WNCC 005
000 x -- 5 8 1
WP -- Duran; 2B -- Jennifer Cottle; HR -- RaVae Herrera
No comments:
Post a Comment