They finally heated up their hitting, but the results remained all too familiar for Wood River High School softball players this past week.
And, just when the offense was showing some spark, Wood River's losing streak reached 10 games when the Wolverines were no-hit by unbeaten Kimberly Monday in Hailey.
Kimberly junior flame-thrower Nellie Makings ended the Bulldogs regular season just the way she started it March 23 at home, this time with a five-inning 10-0 win over Wood River at South Valley Sports Complex softball field.
Makings, who threw a three-hit 10-0 shutout with eight whiffs at Wood River six weeks ago, baffled the Wolverines with a no-hitter Monday. Her line—57 pitches, 0 hits, 0 walks and 8 strikeouts (4 looking).
The 5-4 flinger who throws over 60 mph faced just one batter over the minimum. Wood River batters reached twice on errors. The hardest hit ball was Sydney Tidwell's liner caught in right field that ended the 69-minute non-conference game.
It was Makings's second straight no-hitter. The college prospect who has spent years throwing for the Magic Valley Sooners club team has allowed just one hit in 10-0, 19-0 and 10-0 wins over Wood River, Wendell and Filer the last 10 days.
Makings was Kimberly's pitching ace last spring as coach Rich Bishop's Bulldogs (26-3) captured their second State 3A softball championship in three years with four state wins by a 22-8 score. This year, Kimberly is 22-0 entering its own district tournament today.
Scoring in each inning, the Dawgs (12 hits) got solo homers from Makings, Mikki Corder and Jensen Upton. Their 2-3-4-5 batters, Whitney Carlton, Makings, Alex Pfefferle and Corder, batted 7-for-15 with 8 RBI.
Wood River will try to nail down the fourth seed in next week's Great Basin Conference tournament when coach Dale Martin's squad wraps up its regular season with three games against the Burley Bobcats Thursday and Friday, May 6-7. The tournament opens Monday, May 10 at Twin Falls.
The Wolverines (6-14, 3-8 league) visit Burley Thursday for a single game and host the winless Bobcats (0-21, 0-12) Friday for a 3:30 p.m./5:30 p.m. "Senior Night" twinbill at South Valley Sports Complex.
Minico (5-16, 4-9) swept a three-game series with Burley 22-12, 17-2 and 13-5 last weekend. And Minico is likely to be Wood River's first round opponent in next week's tournament—with the winner of that game going against Twin Falls.
Twin Falls (20-6, 13-2) is the top seed and has earned the tournament host role, followed by second-seeded Canyon Ridge of Twin Falls (23-5, 12-3) and third-seeded Jerome (13-12, 9-5).
Riverhawks sweep WRHS
Wood River will have to shore up its defense to make any headway in the upcoming Great Basin Conference meet.
The resurgent Wolverines showed signs of doing just that when they played Canyon Ridge April 30-May 1 in a three-game conference series.
Canyon Ridge swept the series 23-13 in Hailey Friday, then 15-12 and 13-11 in Twin Falls Saturday. The Riverhawks got plenty of help from the leaky Wolverine defense in a high-scoring series that featured a total 87 runs and 88 hits.
Still, the Hailey defense got better as the series went along.
And the Hailey offense enjoyed its best series of the season against a good team, with a team batting average of .469, .368 and .486 on 46 hits.
Martin said, "Defensively WRHS improved each game and played very well the final nine innings (with only 1 error) of the 21 innings we played. But the three-game series is best described as Wood River leaving too many opportunities on the bases—27 in three games."
Friday in Hailey, the teams played evenly except for Canyon Ridge's 11-run second. On a cool and windy day the Wolverines (7 errors) yielded 12 unearned runs and lost 23-13. Brinley Miller belted a grand slam in the big Hawks frame.
In Saturday's opener at Twin Falls, Wood River (14 hits) batters squandered all kinds of chances (11 LOB, leaving the sacks loaded in first and second). Canyon Ridge (12 hits) rallied from 8-6 and 11-9 deficits to prevail 15-12. Josie Dawson cracked a two-run homer and added a double. Alex Lindbloom added three doubles and Taylor Gove had a two-bagger.
Wood River was the comeback team in the 13-11 nightcap. Canyon Ridge led 9-2 and 13-2, but Martin's team rallied big time with five runs in the fifth and four more in the sixth. Wood River ended up out-hitting the Hawks 17-13 in the second game, 31-25 for the day.
Freshman Sydney Tidwell (2 hits, 5 RBI) cracked her first career homer, a three-run shot to center field. Madison Gove (4-for-4, triple), Josie Dawson (3 hits, 2 RBI) and Kaitana Martinez (3-for-4) chipped in, and Lindbloom doubled.
Wood River junior Taylor Gove drills a base hit on the South Valley Sports Complex field. Photo by David N. Seelig
