By Rich Palzewic
Sports Editor
ASHWAUBENON – In what’s becoming a familiar scenario, Mother Nature had other ideas instead of letting two local teams complete their softball game.
With lightning and rain in the area, the Fox River Classic Conference contest between Ashwaubenon and Pulaski April 12 at Pioneer Park was suspended in the top of the seventh inning with the Red Raiders leading 1-0 with a runner on third and nobody out.
The remainder of the game will be made up May 10 when the Jaguars head to Pulaski as part of the teams’ regularly-scheduled game that day.
Scoreless for the first six innings, the Red Raiders broke through in the seventh when Morgan Vertz led off with a single, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt and a throwing error and scored on another throwing error.
When lightning was spotted, Pulaski’s Meghan Molthen was at third.
The umpires suspended the game at 5:55 p.m. and said if no more lightning was spotted, the game could resume at 6:25.
Shortly thereafter, the game was suspended when heavy rain began to fall.
Through six innings, the hard-throwing Vertz, a sophomore, had 10 strikeouts and had given up 2 hits.
The Jaguars’ best chance to score was in the second inning when Liz Cleveland reached on an error and Sophia Zabel walked, but Vertz then struck out three consecutive batters to end the inning.
Ashwaubenon also had a runner on third with two outs in the fifth inning, but again, Vertz ended the inning with a strikeout.
Cleveland and Nyia Marohl had the only hits for the Jaguars.
Olivia Zabel started on the mound for Ashwaubenon, allowing two hits in her three innings of work.
Freshman Berritt Herr took over in the fourth and shut down the Red Raiders until the seventh.
Herr struck out seven in three-plus innings of work, allowing two hits.
In addition to Vertz’s base knock in the seventh, Gabrielle DeCleene, Brynn Egnarski and Molthen had the other hits for Pulaski.