It wasn't a good day offensively for the Western Nebraska Community College softball team Saturday in their doubleheader against Otero Junior College.The Region IX leading Rattlers shut down the NJCAA fourth-best Cougar hitters in the tune of 4-0 and 12-0 victories, which gave Otero the right to host next months regional tournament.
As much as Otero delivered two shutouts Saturday, the Cougars had opportunities to break the ice.
Freshman Lauren Bourdon, who recorded one of the team's combined nine hits in the contests, said it's hard to explain what happened. All she knows is they need to put these two games behind them and come out today against North Platte Community College with fire.
"We just need to put these games behind us because it is in the past and you can't do anything about the past," she said. "We just need to all come together and beat them (Otero) when it counts at regionals. At their place we can beat them, we know we can, we just need to all come together like we usually do."
WNCC definitely will need offense in today's doubleheader against North Platte, which begins at 2 p.m. at Volunteer Field. It will also be sophomore appreciation day for the only two sophomores on the team Ashley Eichelberger and Jessica Ventoza. Bourdon said they have to be ready offensively.
"We have to come out to play for sure," she said. "We especially need to come out on our bats."
Saturday, it wasn't so much the team not getting base hits, it was a matter of stringing together enough hits to get a run across the plate.
In game one, the Cougars left the bases loaded in the second inning after getting back-t0-back walks and a single before stranding all three runners. Then, in the sixth, the Cougars started a rally as Amanda Hensley recorded her third single of the game followed by a 2-out walk by Torimaru. WNCC, though failed to score.
Otero, meanwhile, scored twice in the second and third, while pounding out four hits in those two innings. The blow was a solo home run by Megan Richardson in the third.
Natasha Dypchey took the loss, despite scattering seven hits while striking out nine. Dypchey also walked four in the seven innings.
Hensley led WNCC from the plate with a 3-for-3 performance, while Lauren Mills was 2-for-3.
Otero quickly took control in game two scoring six times in the first and two more in the second for an 8-0 lead. Otero added three more in the third inning as Richardson had a 2-run home run to put the Rattlers up 11-0.
WNCC managed just four hits in game two from Bourdon, Torimaru, Jessie McNabb, Kara Ryman.
The Cougars' best chance to break the goose-egg on the scoreboard came in the fifth inning. Torimaru started things with an one-out single followed by a Bourdon single up the middle, but that was as close as they could get to scoring.
Dypchey took the loss going 2 2/3 innings and giving up 11 runs on 11 hits. Jessica Pexton then finished off the game holding Otero to just one run and two hits, while striking out two. WNCC, 23-14, will have one more home game after today's contest when they host McCook Community College on Friday in a rescheduled game.
Game One
Otero 022 000 0 - 4 7 0
WNCC 000 000 0 - 0 5 2
WP - Jessie Lessard, LP - Dypchey; 2B - Otero (Stephanie Quintana); HR - Otero (Ricahrdson).
Game Two
Otero 623 10 - 12 14 0
WNCC 000 00 - 0 4 2
LP - Dypchey; 2B - Otero (Becca Diede, Jeana Hancock); HR - Otero (Richardson).
No comments:
Post a Comment