By Nick Beversdorf
Reporter
Bluejay varsity softball lost their first regular season game against Weyauwega-Fremont this past Friday with a final score of 12-1. Sophomore Maddix Bonnell was the only scorer for the bluejays, scoring one run during the bottom of the first to gain an early lead.
That early lead did not last long, however. At the top of the 3rd, two ground balls opened up a scoring opportunity that W-F took advantage of to secure two runs. The top of the 4th proved to be the deciding inning for the game as W-F scored an additional ten runs during that time.
“It was good to finally get on a field and play somebody else,” comments head coach Matt Ellenbecker. “This was our 3rd day on a ball diamond in 3 weeks of practice. That showed in a lot of ways. We played poorly defensively from the very start of the game. We finished with 5 errors, and there were 2 or 3 plays that don’t qualify as errors in the book, but that we have got to make. I think that defense will be a strength of this team, but that didn’t really show through tonight. We gave them several extra outs, and then in the 4th inning they started hitting the ball hard.”
Many of the strikeouts came courtesy of the pitching of Weyauwega-Fremont, with the pitching style changing enough to keep the bluejays constantly trying to adjust.
“Offensively, it took us some time to get adjusted,” adds Ellenbecker. “We struck out 8 times, 5 of those coming in the first two innings. We didn’t adjust to the pitchers velocity really well, and she did a nice job mixing in a rise ball, drop ball, and change up to keep us off balance.”
“It was nice to see us come out in the first inning and put together a couple of nice at-bats to manufacture a run. You have to be able to do that against the quality of pitching that we’ll see most of the year. We managed to hit the ball hard a few times in the last couple of innings, two of those hits finding grass and the fence as doubles for Calli Oberg and Maddix Bonnell.”
“The story of the game, though, was our defense. We’ll continue to work and get reps in order to continually improve. Weyauwega-Fremont is a very good team; they’re definitely a major contender in Division 3. That’s a team that we think we can play with, though. You look back at the game, find areas to improve, and then move on and work on things. We’re a young team, that will certainly grow a great deal as we get acclimated to Varsity softball.”
Bluejay varsity softball will play their next game tonight against Lakeland at 4:30 p.m. at the MARC CANCELLED. On Thursday they will play again @ DC Everest, same time.