Rarely does a fast-pitch soft-ball team enjoy a better day at the plate than the Wood River High School girls did Tuesday in their 17-0 and 16-6 Great Ba-sin Conference league double-header sweep over host Burley.
Wood River (4-3, 4-0 league) extended its winning streak to four games out-hitting the Bob-cats (2-6, 0-5) by a 29-3 margin. In fact the Wolverines swatted out 29 hits in 62 trips over 12 innings for a .467 average, with only two errors defensively.
Getting Wood River off the mark in Tuesday's opener was a five-inning no-hitter tossed by senior righthander Ali Levy (3-1, 13-15 in 3 seasons).
Levy (0 hits, 4 K, 1 BB) nearly had a perfect game with junior catcher Devan Atkinson, only a first-inning walk pre-venting that achievement. It was her first career no-hitter.
The score was 2-0 after three frames but Wood River erupted for seven runs in the fourth and eight more in the fifth. Big innings have been Wolverine habits in a win streak where they've outscored Jerome and Burley teams by a 60-22 margin.
Leading the 12-hit attack in the 17-0 shutout were sopho-more first baseman Sydney Tidwell (4-for-4, 2 runs, 5 RBI), senior third baseman Taylor Gove (2 hits, 2 RBI), Atkinson (2 hits, double, 2 runs) and senior center fielder Hunter Thomp-son (2 hits, triple, 2 runs).
Southpaw pitcher Madison Gove and catcher Kori Paradis had Burley's number for five-plus innings in Tuesday's nightcap—Wood River carry-ing a 10-0 lead into the home sixth. That's when Gove (1 hit, 4 K, 11 BB) needed relief be-cause of control problems, and Levy came to the rescue.
Levy relieved Gove with the bases loaded and allowed only one of the baserunners to score. She finished the game for Gove (1-2), who earned her first pitching win. Meanwhile, the hot hitting continued for coach Dale Martin's Hailey girls.
Doing most of the damage were senior shortstop Josie Dawson (3 hits, 3 runs, 3 RBI), sophomore Paradis (2 hits, double, 2 runs), Taylor Gove (2 hits, 2 runs), Thompson (3 hits, double, 3 runs) and Madison Gove (double, 2 runs), who reached base five times includ-ing a hit and three walks.
Wood River, last year's Great Basin runner-up, will be without several players due to other school commitments for its two-day trip to Kimberly for a prestigious mid-season non-conference tournament today, Friday and Saturday, April 16.
Today, the Wolverines play Teton of Driggs at 1 p.m. and Spring Creek (Nev.) at 5 p.m. Saturday, it's South Fremont of St. Anthony at 1 p.m. and High-land of Pocatello at 5 p.m.
Wood River completes its three-game season series with Burley Tuesday, April 19 at 4 p.m. on the Hailey diamond in what should be the first home game of the season, weather permitting. Then the hard part begins.
The Wolverines play their three-game series with league-leading Twin Falls (7-3, 6-0) on April 22-23, then face upstart Canyon Ridge of Twin Falls (9-2, 4-1) April 29-30.
How serious the Riverhawks are about their league chances will be tested when they play Twin Falls today and Saturday. Twin Falls has won its six league games by a lopsided 91-28 margin so far this spring.
Burley tries to get its first league win this weekend against reigning GBC champ Jerome (4-3, 1-3).
