Wood River High School senior Samantha Engel has become the school's all-time winningest softball pitcher in the last few days as the Wolverines have started to come together on the softball diamond.
Engel (4-3) pitched Wood River to a 13-4 Great Basin Conference West road victory over the Minico Spartans Tuesday to improve her four-year varsity pitching record to 26-24. The previous best was Aubrey Kirtley's 23-9 from 2001-2003.
Wood River (4-3, 1-0 league) out-hit the winless Spartans (0-13, 0-1) by a 12-10 margin sparked by Engel (3 hits, 5 RBI) and the team's other senior, Angela Coleman (3 hits, double, 3 runs). On the mound, Engel (10 hits, 0 earned runs) whiffed eight and didn't walk a batter.
Other productive hitters for Wood River at Minico were freshman Haylee Thompson (2 RBI), sophomore Josie Dawson (2 hits, 1 RBI) and junior Rachel Maier (1 RBI). The Wolverines, building an early 9-2 lead after two frames, drew 11 walks and were plunked twice in addition to their 12 hits for the day.
Wood River and Minico tried to complete their home-and-home Great Basin West series Wednesday afternoon at Hailey's South Valley Sports Complex, but a dash of blustery weather dashed their hopes.
Minico took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on two Wood River errors, but the game lasted only 14 minutes when umpire Bill Shohoney called the teams off the field because of a fast-moving storm that encircled Hailey and blew rain and sleet.
After a 49-minute delay, Shohoney called the game, which may or may not be replayed from the beginning at a future date. Wood River officials said Minico didn't want to return to Hailey to replay it unless it made some difference in the conference standings for 2009.
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Defending champion Wood River ended the day in first place in the Great Basin Conference West, since Jerome and Burley divided their home-and-home games this week.
Jerome (9-3-1, 1-1) won its home game Tuesday over Burley 7-4, then the Bobcats (9-3- 1-1) turned around Wednesday and spanked Jerome 11-3 with a 16-hit attack. Burley senior pitcher Mollie Mills walked only one batter in the two games and bashed out five hits including a homer at the plate.
Wood River has its home-and-home with Jerome starting Wednesday, April 15, at Jerome and goes against Burley April 20-21. First, the Wolverines play a doubleheader at Preston Saturday, April 11.
