Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Lady Cats unleash a barrage in Hailey

Wood River goes back to basics


It's not easy when you're young and learning the ropes, as the Wood River High School softball team has found during its recent rough patch of seven losses in the past eight games.

Wood River has enjoyed much success on its home field (74-32 nine seasons), but the three home games Thursday and Friday didn't fit into that category. Minico and Filer outscored Wood River 42-11 and out-hit the Wolverines 46-14.

Thursday, the Minico Spartans (8-8, 4-0 league) swept their Great Basin Conference West season series with Wood River (5-11, 0-4) by a lopsided 10-0 score on the Hailey diamond.

Wood River managed two hits, both by senior Ali Sherbine. In contrast, Minico scored in five of its seven at-bats and ended with 13 hits. Suffering the loss was junior Catherine Beck (5 earned runs, 8 K, 5 BB.) Wood River had six errors.

Minico's senior pitcher Amber Warth (8-7) had complete control of the young Wolverines, Hailey coach Dale Martin said. "We started two ninth-graders and two tenth-graders, due to injuries, and our young players were intimidated by Warth," said Martin.

A little more unexpected was Filer's hitting dominance in the Lady Cats' 18-0 and 14-11 non-conference doubleheader sweep Friday. Wood River had beaten Filer 5-2 in its season opener March 10 and was expecting a closer contest.

But Filer's batters (33 hits and 32 runs in 9 innings) just killed the ball all afternoon.

In the opener, Filer (17 hits) led 9-0 after four frames and blew it open with a nine-run fifth that featured two rare over-the-fence 230-yard homers—the first a two-run shot by Natalie Hoyt and the second a grand slam to left center by catcher/clean-up hitter Sarah Woolley (4 hits).

Wood River had just three hits off Filer's talented lefthanded pitcher Dani Hansing (6-4). They were by Sherbine, Jamie Stone (double) and Lisa Nilsen. The losing pitcher in the five-inning run-rule game was Sherbine (1-3).

The nightcap was more encouraging for a Wolverine team that had scored only 16 runs in its last seven games.

Building an early 7-2 lead, Wood River scored 11 runs on nine hits, but committed five errors and let Filer back into the game allowing unearned runs in the third and fourth.

Filer (13-7) eventually won 14-11 with 16 hits and made righthander Beck (4-8) throw 107 pitches in four frames. Picking up her first pitching win was Filer's Holly Hansing, in relief. Hansing (3 hits) and catcher Jennifer D'Antonio (3 hits, 4 RBI) led the Cat attack.

Contributions at the plate came from Hailey leadoff batter Sherbine (2 hits, 2 runs, 2 RBI), Jamie Stone (3 runs), Nilsen (2 hits, 2 runs), center fielder Katie Pruett (2 hits, 2 runs) and second sacker Leighandra Roberts (2 runs).

Filer must have used up all its hits in Hailey, since the Lady Cats dropped a 17-2 and 3-2 doubleheader at Buhl (9-4) on Saturday. Buhl senior/sophomore pitchers Whitney Ordonez (6-3) and Miranda Juker (3-1) limited Filer to five hits in 12 frames.

Wood River was supposed to play at Buhl Monday, but the twinbill was canceled because of wet grounds. "It was a great break for us," said Martin. "We need to practice this week."

The Wolverines host Jerome Friday, April 29 at 4:30 p.m. for a conference game and go to Preston for an 11 a.m. doubleheader Saturday. Next week, Wood River will either play Buhl or Shoshone to get in some games before district.




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