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Pirates and Jaguars split softball doubleheader

Bay Port’s Kyleigh Schuette catches a pop-up in game one May 8. The Pirates and Ashwaubenon split a doubleheader (Melinda Palzewic photo). 

BY RICH PALZEWIC
CORRESPONDENT


SUAMICO – Anytime Bay Port and Ashwaubenon get together in softball, you can expect close games.

The two teams didn’t disappoint in a May 8 Fox River Classic Conference doubleheader at Bay Port High School.

The Pirates (5-5 FRCC) won game one 3-2, before the Jaguars (7-3) came back to win the nightcap by an identical score in eight innings.

Game one – Hock does it again

Bay Port’s Emma Hock ended game one in dramatic fashion by hitting a leadoff solo homer in the bottom of the seventh for the victory.

Hock, a junior catcher, has now hit five homeruns in her last five games. She also hit a two-run blast in the third inning to give the Pirates a 2-0 lead.

“I’m not sure what’s going on,” said a smiling Hock in regards to her power surge. “I’m just seeing the ball well and having good at-bats.”

Senior Sydney LaPoint got the complete-game victory on the mound by giving up just four hits and striking out 10. Just one of the runs she allowed was earned.

“I was really proud of how the kids played in the first game,” said Bay Port head coach Dave Luedke. “Emma is just on fire at the plate and Sydney pitched her usual strong game.”

Nicole Vandervest scored ahead of Hock’s homer in the third after she reached on a fielder’s choice.

Ashwaubenon tied the score at two in the sixth by manufacturing a couple of runs.

Zion Estano singled, Chloe Brabant reached on an error and then Alexa Blasczyk advanced both runners with a sacrifice bunt. Estano scored on an RBI fielder’s choice by Kate Cleveland, before Brabant scored on an RBI ground out by Kally VanLaanen.

Cleveland surrendered just five hits on the mound, struck out seven and didn’t walk a batter.

Vandervest had a double for the Pirates, while Maddy Ehlke had two hits.

Tatum Scheffel had two hits for the Jaguars, while Brabant had the other.

Box Score – Game 1

Ashwaubenon: 000 002 0 – 2 4 2
Bay Port: 002 000 1 – 3 5 2

ASH: Leading hitters – Scheffel 2X3; RBI: Cleveland (1), VanLaanen (1); Pitching – Cleveland (LP), 6.0+ IP, 3 R (2 ER), 5 H, 0 BB, 7 SO.

BP: Leading hitters – Hock 2X4, Ehlke 2X3; RBI: Hock (3); 2B: Vandervest; HR: Hock (2); Pitching – LaPoint (WP), 7.0 IP, 2 R (1 ER), 4 H, 0 BB, 10 SO.

Bay Port’s Emma Hock and Karigann Wood.

Game 2 – Wright’s single lifts Jags to late-inning win

Peyton Wright’s two-out, RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning sent Ashwaubenon home with the split.

“I came up to bat knowing that I had to get that hit and get that run in for our team to win,” said Wright, who drove in VanLaanen, who had led off the inning with a single. “I kept my hands up and didn’t loop the bat – it worked out.”

The Jaguars used three Bay Port errors in the first inning to score a single run off LaPoint, who went the first four innings before Alexis Tingley relieved her in the fifth.

Ashwaubenon got another single run in the second after Josie Hilbert led off the inning with a double and was driven in by a two-out RBI single by Estano.

Bay Port cut the deficit to one on an Ehlke blast over the left-center-field fence in the fourth, but Cleveland – who also pitched game two – got herself out of a major jam thereafter.

After Jourdan Lee singled and Karigann Wood ripped a double, the Pirates had runners on second and third with nobody out; but the sophomore Cleveland forced an infield pop-up and got a strikeout for the second out. Vandervest then ripped a shot to the third baseman to end the inning.

“The second game was just about us not taking advantage of our opportunities,” Luedke said. “We had too many lapses and errors. Ashwaubenon took advantage of it.”

Bay Port tied the game at two in the fifth when Wood’s RBI single scored Kyleigh Schuette, but Blasczyk gunned down the potential go-ahead run at the plate with a perfect throw from her spot in left field.

“I couldn’t be more proud of how our girls hung in there in game two,” said Ashwaubenon head coach Shannon VanLaanen. “Peyton came up with the big hit to win it and Kate (Cleveland) was not coming out of the game. That’s just her mentality out on the mound – she wanted to stay in.”

Wood and Ehlke had three and two hits respectively for the Pirates, while Hock, Schuette, LaPoint and Tingley also had hits.

Estano, Cleveland and Hilbert had two hits apiece for Ashwaubenon, while Blasczyk had one as well.

Cleveland struck out six, didn’t walk a batter and gave up 10 hits.

Box Score – Game 2

Bay Port: 000 110 00 – 2 10 3
Ashwaubenon: 110 000 01 – 3 9 1

BP: Leading hitters – Wood 3X4, Ehlke 2X4; RBI: Ehlke (1), Wood (1); 2B: Wood; HR: Ehlke; Pitching – LaPoint – 4.0 IP, 2 R (1 ER), 4 H, 1 BB, 0 SO; Tingley (LP) – 4.2 IP, 1 R (1 ER), 5 H, 0 BB, 1 K.

ASH: Leading hitters – Estano 2X4, Cleveland 2X4, Hilbert 2X4; RBI: Estano (1), Wright (1); 2B: Hilbert; Pitching – Cleveland (WP), 8.0 IP, 2 R (2 ER), 10 H, 0 BB, 6 SO.

Ashwaubenon’s Kate Cleveland and Peyton Wright

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