Warriors rally falls short in late innings

Font Size

Print

Email

Black Text

White Text

ELGIN -- The offense for Waubonsie Valley's softball team was pretty quiet for the first five innings of Friday's Upstate Eight Conference game at Larkin.

The Warriors came alive in the final two innings, but it wasn't quite enough in a 7-4 loss.

Waubonsie scored three runs in the sixth and added one in the seventh, but could not complete the comeback. The Warriors (1-10 overall, 1-5 UEC) had two runners on base with one out in the seventh before Larkin starter Heather Graff (2-4) wiggled out of trouble to end the game.

"Unfortunately, I don't think we were aggressive enough in the beginning of the ballgame," Waubonsie coach Kris Kalivas said. "We left some runners in scoring position early on. I'm proud of the way the girls fought and came back, but unfortunately they were hitting us as much as we were hitting them."

That three-run sixth cut the Larkin lead to 5-3, but the Royals (3-9, 3-4) responded with two runs in the bottom of the inning to push the lead back out to 7-3.

"We held our poise," Larkin coach Larry Hight said. "One of the big things that they did was they made it 5-3 and we answered with two more runs. When you do that, you're going to win games. We haven't been doing that. It's a start."

Larkin scored single runs in both the first and second innings, but the damage could have been worse. The Royals left four total runners on base in those innings and chased Warriors starter Becky Randall (0-4).

Bre Price relieved Randall and did not fare much better. Larkin scored two runs in the fifth, one scoring on a wild pitch. Sophie Sterricker punctuated the win for the Royals with a solo home run in the sixth.

"They were putting it in there, but sometimes they don't hit their spots and they're a good hitting team," Warriors catcher Becky Horton said. "It wasn't really our pitchers' fault at all."

Tori Spears, Horton and Lisa Corrigan opened the sixth for Waubonsie Valley with consecutive singles. All three wound up scoring to slice the lead to 5-3. Ally Seplak led off the seventh with a single and scored on an error to cut the lead to 7-4, but that was all the Warriors' offense could muster.

"I just think we came out more aggressive," Horton said of the final two innings. "It just really gets me when we don't come up or swing at the first pitch. I think we're looking too much and we have to get ready earlier."

The Warriors have a rare Saturday off before getting back to action next week.

"It's a little frustrating, but I think we just need to focus on the positives and always think of it as a new inning, a new game," Horton said. "We just have to shake stuff off. Our coaches are never going to be really mad at us. They're always really positive. We just try to work hard. We've made a lot of progress and we just have to keep on working on it." Softball: Larkin 7, Waubonsie Valley 4