By Rich Palzewic
Sports Editor
GREEN BAY – Green Bay Preble’s Ally Eden picked a good time for her first career high school home runs.
Eden, who had two round-trippers in the Hornets’ 13-5 victory over Green Bay East in a WIAA Division 1 regional at the Finger Road Softball Complex May 21, also picked up the pitching win on the mound.
The sophomore Eden hit a two-run homer in the third inning, had an RBI single in the fourth and ended her day at the plate with a lead-off homer in the sixth.
“The last few games before this one, I don’t think I was pitching as fast as I did today,” said Eden, who gave up five runs on eight hits in her six innings of work. “It was an important game, so I knew I had to get it done. I focused on everything I needed to do. Earlier in the season on some of my longer hits, I had good feelings about them, but then they would hit the fence. On these two, they felt good and went over.”
The Hornets were helped by five East errors in scoring three runs in the first and third innings, four in the fourth and three more in the sixth.
“Overall, it went the way we hoped,” said Preble head coach Ron Metzler. “We knew East could hit the ball, but we had to last longer and show our depth. East has some talented players – a good pitcher in [Morgan] Nemecek and catcher in [Teagan] Delarwelle.”
With two outs in the bottom of the first, Nemecek walked two batters and hit another to load the bases.
Preble’s Mel Siudzinksi then cleared the bases with a three-RBI triple to right for a 3-0 lead.
“If we could have gotten out of the first, that would have been big,” said East head coach Craig Kozlowski. “Overall, I’m happy with our effort, but we made too many mistakes. Preble is a good team and hit the ball.”
The Red Devils rallied in the third with four runs on five hits to grab a 4-3 lead.
The big blow came on a bases-loaded double by Makenna Reynolds.
The Hornets prevented further damage by ending the inning on a 6-3 double play.
Preble’s Brooke Hock added an RBI double in both the third and fourth innings, and another single later in the game for a three-hit day.
Madi Whitney added a sixth inning sacrifice fly, and Siudzinski had two hits.
Claire Price and Eden scored four runs each.
East was led by Delarwelle’s two hits.
“Ally has worked really hard,” Metzler said. “She’s a good hitter – she batted .411 in the conference – with a lot of power. Lately, she worked on a couple of tweaks with her hitting and it paid off. Some of the things she worked on we saw today in her three hits at the plate.”
The loss for East (6-11 overall) ended the career for seniors Nemecek, Kendra Flashberger, Allison Rehberg and Reynolds.
“The four seniors have been the heart and soul of our team all last off-season and this year,” Kozlowski said. “They led this team and will be missed.”
With the win, Preble (19-8) will host West De Pere (17-4) for the regional championship May 23.
The Phantoms rallied late for a 5-4 victory over Appleton East.
“We like the challenge of playing West De Pere,” said Metzler. “Unlike some of these other teams that we play over and over again, we don’t see them as much. Obviously, they pitch the ball well. They have good hitters and are a good team, but it all starts with their pitcher [Genesis Eggart].”
Box score
Green Bay East: 004 100 0 – 5 8 5
Green Bay Preble: 303 403 X – 13 10 1