April 24, 2017 at 1:43 p.m.
Errors, doubles lead West past Hodag softball 5-1
Errors, doubles lead West past Hodag softball 5-1
Junior pitcher Stephanie Kuester pitched effectively but got little run support in a 5-1 loss Friday at Wausau West.
Two errors and two, two-out doubles help the Warriors produce all of their runs while the Hodags (2-2, 2-1 Great Northern) could not get the bats going, striking out 11 times against West's Emily Gwidt.
"To be honest, I thought we came out flat," DeMeyer said. "I was a little disappointed in that. I thought the girls would rally together and I thought we were flat, at least for the first five innings. The sixth inning we put a little something together."
West did all of its damage in a three-inning stretch between the third and the fifth. The Warriors made Rhinelander pay for a one-out throwing error in the third as Taylor Treu lined a two-out double to the right-center gap, plating Alicia Pfiffner.
Stephanie Kuester (0-1), making her first start of the season in place of the injured Schickert, struck out seven and allowed six hits over six innings. She walked only three batters in the game, but two of those free passes helped West load the bases with two out in the fourth. Sami Brown made Kuester pay with a bases-clearing two-bagger to the gap in left center.
"They had some timely hits," DeMeyer said. "They hit the ball. They hit a lot of balls foul, but Steph kept them on their toes and off balance. She pitched really good and I think she's only going to get better the more work she gets."
Treu reached on an error to lead off the fifth. Her courtesy runner, Sydney Baldwin, scored when she beat a throw to the plate on a one-out grounder to short by Madelyn Ramtuhn. After committing seven errors in a loss Tuesday against Mosinee, the Hodags were charged with four errors in Friday's loss.
"We've got to cut down on the fundamental errors," DeMeyer said. "We threw to the wrong base. We extended innings for them. (The players) know it. They were pretty down."
The Hodags didn't have much offense to speak of. Lindsay Juedes, Erica Counter and Hope Wissbroecker, the Nos. 4-6 in the Rhinelander lineup, went a combined 0-for-8 with eight strikeouts Friday. Freshman Sophia McGinnis, inserted into the starting lineup due to Schickert's injury, was fanned twice and went 0-for-2.
"They made that pitcher look better (than she is)," DeMeyer said of this team. "Not to take anything away from the pitcher, but I think we had six strikeouts not swinging. Way too many. That's not us. We're aggressive at the plate. I was disappointed in that. I had a little heart-to-heart talk with them after the game and I told them it's up to them. We can't do nothing if we don't get on base. They have to be aggressive at the plate, swinging at strikes."
Mikayla Evenstad was the only Hodag to figure out Gwidt. The slap-hitting lefty went 2-for-2 and scored the Hodags' lone run following an overthrow in the sixth as West tried to turn a double play.
The Hodags took on Northland Pines Monday in a game that concluded after deadline. The team was also hoping to get an update Monday on Schickert, as she was scheduled to undergo more tests to determine the severity of the right knee injury she sustained trying to field a ground ball in the seventh inning of last Tuesday's 11-4 loss to Mosinee.
"Either way, we've still got to play, no matter what the results are. I challenged them next week and I hoping it's a good season and not a long season," DeMeyer said. "They've all got to step it up a little bit more. They've got to cover for everybody and just be energetic. I just think we were flatter. There wasn't a lot of talking, wasn't a lot of anything. We were just kind of going through the motions. We have a better team than that. That's what I challenged them with. We have a good team. Whether Ali's here or not, we still have a good team. We just need to play well."
The Hodags host Tomahawk Tuesday at Pioneer Park.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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