By Murray Gleffe
Correspondent
DE PERE—Genesis Eggart didn’t allow a single hit as the West De Pere Phantoms defeated the Manitowoc Ships 5-0 in a non-conference softball game March 29 at West De Pere Middle School.
“It was a great defensive effort by the girls today after our loss to Oshkosh West,” said West De Pere head coach Tom Zimdars. “Genesis is an ultra-talented kid that I’ve seen pitch even better than today. In addition, we had some great catches in the outfield to preserve the no-hitter.”
In addition to throwing the no-hitter, Eggart had 16 strikeouts in the victory.
Grace Satori took the loss for the Ships, giving up four runs in four innings pitched.
After a quick three and out in the top of the first by Manitowoc, the Phantoms hit back-to-back-to-back singles to start their at-bats.
However, the Ships got out of the inning with two infield ground outs and a short pop-out, stranding two West De Pere runners.
In the bottom of the fourth, with the game still scoreless, the Phantoms erupted.
Eggart had a lead-off single, and that was followed by three consecutive wild pitches by Satori to give the Phantoms an early 1-0 lead.
Brianna Destache walked and then went to second with a stolen base.
After a ground out and strikeout that advanced Destache to third, another wild pitch gave the Phantoms a 2-0 lead.
A walk to Ivy Stary and double by Taylor Degroot put runners at second and third.
“My nine hitter, Taylor (DeGroot) really stood out to me today,” Zimdars said about her offense. “She had the one big hit but had other quality at bats – very impressed.”
Alexa Thomson then hit a cracking shot to the Manitowoc shortstop. A throwing error sent Thomson to first and brought home two more runs to give West De Pere a 4-0 lead after four innings.
“We had some good fortune with the pass balls,” Zimdars added. “Luckily, we had runners on base and we took advantage of it.”
The Phantoms tacked on a fifth and final run in the fifth inning after Anna Young scored on a Rebekah Buboltz single.
The last couple of innings didn’t produce any real hitting drama – rather all eyes were on Eggart to see if she could complete the no-hitter in the top of the seventh.
She ended in style by striking out the Ship’s Chloe Lodel and Samantha Maes to accomplish the feat.
“We got moved up to the D-1 bracket this year,” added Zimdars. “So we added FRCC teams to our schedule, and it will only help us throughout the season. It’s important to get wins head-to-head when the seeding meeting takes place.”
Box Score
Manitowoc: 0,0,0 0,0,0 0—0
West De Pere: 0,0,0 4,1,0 X—5
