By Josh Staloch
Correspondent
SUAMICO – The Bay Port softball team debuted its new diamond Tuesday, April 27, to kick off the season against Algoma.
The result couldn’t have been much better for the Pirates, as they took care of the visiting Wolves 14-2 in five innings.
“This is a new field, but we played an old team,” said Bay Port head coach Amber Francour, who herself is an Algoma graduate. “We’re excited about this season – we’ve got a good crew. Today, we were hoping we’d have a good day offensively, but you never know when it comes to game time. There were nerves, and it was windy and cold, but what we saw today was about how we’ve been performing in practice.”
Pirates starting pitcher Alexis Watson took care of Algoma’s first three hitters in order before Bay Port got to work on offense.
Vanessa Bushmaker led things off with a slap bunt in the first inning and advanced to second on an Algoma miscue.
Next, Mady Wolfgram advanced Bushmaker to third with a sacrifice bunt before Jacki Szelagowski cranked a shot to centerfield for a triple and the first RBI on the new diamond.
Szelagowski made it home two batters later when Watson, on an 0-2 count, hit a blooper to left field to give her team a 2-0 advantage.
In the bottom of the second, Maggie Luedke earned a walk before Brynn Dahlke put down a bunt that Algoma’s defense couldn’t handle.
Brooklyn Rau then christened the new field by smashing one over the fence in center to put three more on the scoreboard for a 5-0 lead.
Home run No. 2 wasn’t far behind when Kerena Wood, with no outs yet recorded in the inning, went yard to bring home Szelagowski and Wolfgram for an 8-0 advantage.
The inning got worse for Algoma later when Dahlke hit a double for two RBI before Watson wrapped up Bay Port’s scoring on the day with a triple to score three runners.
“Hopefully, we can keep this up,” Francour said. “Our bats went quiet in the fourth and fifth innings.”