Wawasee Softball Team Edges NLC Foe Goshen
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Mark [email protected]
Visiting Goshen did about everything it could to offer the Lady Warriors a challenge before falling 3-2 on Wawasee’s Senior Night.
Wawasee scored all three of its runs after two outs.
In the first inning, Kylee Rostochak scored on Allissa Flores’ triple into the right field corner.
In the second frame, Ale Brito scored from first on a single by Cristina DeLaFuente and a two-base error when the ball got past the Lady RedHawks’ Shelby Yoder. DeLaFuente scored on Danielle Gunkel’s double to left-center.
The power hitting Wawasee has been known for, particlarily in home games, was negated by the wind blowing straight in from centerfield. Several fly balls that might have had a chance to clear the fence on any other day were caught easily by Goshen outfielders.
Meghan Fretz pitched through two troublesome innings to get the complete-game win. In the third, Goshen scored an unearned run when a pickoff attempt at second base resulted in a throw into centerfield.
Goshen’s best threat came in the fifth inning, when pitcher Caitlyn Doyle and Yoder led off the inning with singles, putting runners at the corners. Reagan Wilson bunted in front of the plate, and Wawasee catcher Graceanne Kerlin looked Doyle back to third before throwing to first base for the first out. Doyle took off as soon as Kerlin released the ball, and the return throw from second baseman Flores, covering first on the play, was just in time; a call Goshen coach Brent Kulp clearly disagreed with.
A walk and a hit batsman loaded the bases, and a grounder to second was very close to hitting an advancing runner, and Flores had her vision blocked and couldn’t come up with the ball cleanly, allowing Goshen’s second run to score.
Fretz struck out Emily Castillo to retire the side in the fifth, then allowed only an infield single the rest of the way.
While Wawasee didn’t play its best, head coach Jared Knipper said “I don’t care; just win. We didn’t execute some bunts, and we should have scored three or four more runs. But this time of the year, going into sectionals, it doesn’t matter what your score is, as long as at the end of the game your team scored more runs than the other team, and that’s what we’re working on.
“The whole week is focused on ‘just win.’ Clean, dirty, whatever, just win. And we did that tonight. Could we have scored a few more runs and maybe opened things up a little bit? Yeah. but we had a lot of long balls caught at the fence. I’m more disappointed in the bunts we didn’t execute; those are the kinds of things we have to do to advance in sectionals, and we didn’t do that tonight. So that’ll be something we focus on the rest of the week.”
That rest of the week, and regular season, concludes for Wawasee with games at Concord on Wednesday and at Bremen on Friday.
Wawasee won the junior varsity contest 13-2 in five innings. Bethany Flannery hit a pair of home runs, including a grand slam in the fifth that ended the game, and Leah deSomer also homered in the fifth for the Lady Warriors.
WAWASEE 3, GOSHEN 2
G 001 010 0 – 2 4 1
W 120 000 x – 3 9 2
Goshen – Caitlyn Doyle (L, 6IP, 9H, 3R, 2ER, 1BB, OK)
Wawasee – Meghan Fretz (W, 7IP, 4H, 2R, 0ER, 2BB, 7K)
2B – Danielle Gunkel (W)
3B – Allissa Flores (W)
Records – Goshen 9-14 (6-7 NLC), Wawasee 21-4 (12-1 NLC)
JV – Wawasee 13, Goshen 2 (5 inn.)
HR – Bethany Flannery 2 (W), Leah deSomer (W)[[In-content Ad]]
Visiting Goshen did about everything it could to offer the Lady Warriors a challenge before falling 3-2 on Wawasee’s Senior Night.
Wawasee scored all three of its runs after two outs.
In the first inning, Kylee Rostochak scored on Allissa Flores’ triple into the right field corner.
In the second frame, Ale Brito scored from first on a single by Cristina DeLaFuente and a two-base error when the ball got past the Lady RedHawks’ Shelby Yoder. DeLaFuente scored on Danielle Gunkel’s double to left-center.
The power hitting Wawasee has been known for, particlarily in home games, was negated by the wind blowing straight in from centerfield. Several fly balls that might have had a chance to clear the fence on any other day were caught easily by Goshen outfielders.
Meghan Fretz pitched through two troublesome innings to get the complete-game win. In the third, Goshen scored an unearned run when a pickoff attempt at second base resulted in a throw into centerfield.
Goshen’s best threat came in the fifth inning, when pitcher Caitlyn Doyle and Yoder led off the inning with singles, putting runners at the corners. Reagan Wilson bunted in front of the plate, and Wawasee catcher Graceanne Kerlin looked Doyle back to third before throwing to first base for the first out. Doyle took off as soon as Kerlin released the ball, and the return throw from second baseman Flores, covering first on the play, was just in time; a call Goshen coach Brent Kulp clearly disagreed with.
A walk and a hit batsman loaded the bases, and a grounder to second was very close to hitting an advancing runner, and Flores had her vision blocked and couldn’t come up with the ball cleanly, allowing Goshen’s second run to score.
Fretz struck out Emily Castillo to retire the side in the fifth, then allowed only an infield single the rest of the way.
While Wawasee didn’t play its best, head coach Jared Knipper said “I don’t care; just win. We didn’t execute some bunts, and we should have scored three or four more runs. But this time of the year, going into sectionals, it doesn’t matter what your score is, as long as at the end of the game your team scored more runs than the other team, and that’s what we’re working on.
“The whole week is focused on ‘just win.’ Clean, dirty, whatever, just win. And we did that tonight. Could we have scored a few more runs and maybe opened things up a little bit? Yeah. but we had a lot of long balls caught at the fence. I’m more disappointed in the bunts we didn’t execute; those are the kinds of things we have to do to advance in sectionals, and we didn’t do that tonight. So that’ll be something we focus on the rest of the week.”
That rest of the week, and regular season, concludes for Wawasee with games at Concord on Wednesday and at Bremen on Friday.
Wawasee won the junior varsity contest 13-2 in five innings. Bethany Flannery hit a pair of home runs, including a grand slam in the fifth that ended the game, and Leah deSomer also homered in the fifth for the Lady Warriors.
WAWASEE 3, GOSHEN 2
G 001 010 0 – 2 4 1
W 120 000 x – 3 9 2
Goshen – Caitlyn Doyle (L, 6IP, 9H, 3R, 2ER, 1BB, OK)
Wawasee – Meghan Fretz (W, 7IP, 4H, 2R, 0ER, 2BB, 7K)
2B – Danielle Gunkel (W)
3B – Allissa Flores (W)
Records – Goshen 9-14 (6-7 NLC), Wawasee 21-4 (12-1 NLC)
JV – Wawasee 13, Goshen 2 (5 inn.)
HR – Bethany Flannery 2 (W), Leah deSomer (W)[[In-content Ad]]
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