GINW, Cozad split in close
doubleheader
Pair of young teams each wins one
game that goes down to the wire
By Dale
Miller
dale.miller@theindependent.com
A pair of nailbiters ended with Cozad and Grand Island Northwest each
taking a win away from Thursday¹s doubleheader between young teams at George
Park.
The Vikings
won in extra innings 2-1 in the first game for a Parents’ Night triumph. Cozad
responded in the second game with six straight seventh inning hits to turn a
0-0 deadlock into a 5-1 victory.
“I’m really
happy with how we played,” GINW coach Mike Witt said. “We cut down on our
errors tonight.”
The Vikings
(7-14) used big plays to pull out the win in the opener between the teams who
combined have three seniors on their rosters. The game went into international
tie-breaker rules with the score tied 1-1 in the eighth. Class C No. 7-rated
Cozad (11-7) started the top of the inning with Kylee
Goings on second before she moved to third on a passed ball.
Mallory
Nutt bunted, and third baseman Maggie Geist picked up
the ball, faked a throw to first, and started a rundown that ended with
leftfielder Julie Stoltenberg tagging out Goings as she retreated to third.
Northwest
began its half of the inning with Geist on second. Alison Brentzel put
the ball in play, but Cozad had time to get a throw to third. However,
shortstop Chelsea Norris forgot that she had to make a tag, and Geist slid by safely.
Haley Hack
reached safely on a bunt to load the bases. After the Haymakers got the first
out, Amber Schacher hit a grounder that rolled under
the glove of Norris to allow Geist to score the
winning run.
“That was a
good game,” Witt said. “It was probably the best we’ve played all-around all
year.
“We had
some freshmen who made some great plays. Mikaela
Klein did a nice job at second base and scored the tying run. Julie Stoltenberg
struggled with two hits early, but then she made some awesome catches in left
field.”
Junior
shortstop Kayla Casares gobbled up grounders to help
the Vikings play an error-free game. “She made some great plays,” Witt said.
“I’d put her up against any shortstop in the state. She played really, really
well.”
Schacher
picked up the complete-game win, allowing four hits while striking out two and
walking none.
The second
game also appeared set to go down to the wire.
The teams
stranded a combined 11 runners over the first six innings, which were
scoreless.
Cozad got
its bats going in the seventh, stringing six consecutive hits together with one
out.
The
Haymakers loaded the bases on seeing-eye and bloop
singles.
Allison Hendricksen then blasted a pitch to the fence in leftfield,
scoring two.
Brooke
Conroy also doubled to score two more.
Northwest
tried to rally and was aided by three Cozad errors in the bottom of the inning.
Christine Prucha scored on the third of those errors to make it 5-1,
but the Vikings couldn’t push any more runs across despite getting players to
third and second base.
“Cozad hit
the ball all night,” Witt said. “We made good plays. (In the seventh inning)
they finally found the holes, so there’s no shame in that. They beat us how we
wanted to force them to beat us.
“I thought
our pitchers did a heck of a job keeping them under control. We could have kept
them down to three or four runs instead of five, but the kids did a good job of
keeping their heads and not getting shocked.”
Geist
took the loss. She gave up five runs on eight hits over 6 1/3 innings while
striking out four and walking one.
Northwest
hopes to continue its improved play when it hosts its own tournament on
Saturday.
“We have
the chance to do some good things Saturday,” Witt said. “We’re going to see
some good teams. Boone Central is tough and Fillmore Central is undefeated.
“High
Plains played us tough, and Thayer Central has a good program. It’ll be like a
football game or a boxing match, we’ll get knocked in
the teeth right away. I hope we can respond and do some good things after
that.”
First Game
Cozad 010
000 00 ‹
1 4 1
GINW 000
100 01 ‹
2 1 0
WP‹Schacher. LP‹Hoch. 2B‹C, Conroy. 3B‹C, Wolf.
Second Game
Cozad
(11-7) 000 000 5 ‹ 5
9 3
GINW
(7-14) 000 000 1
‹ 1 5 4
WP‹Conroy.
LP‹Geist. 2B‹Conroy.