GILMAN SOFTBALL - Eventful week features DH split, Slamfest and slugfest wins

GILMAN SOFTBALL

With Columbus Catholic having run away with the Eastern Cloverbelt Conference softball title, the Gilman Pirates are in WIAA tournament preparation mode for the last week-plus of the regular season.

Coming away with a split in Tuesday’s league doubleheader at Neillsville-Granton, the Pirates showed signs of fixing some things heading into the home stretch.

The defense was solid throughout in a 3-2 loss and 14-4 win during the twinbill. Pitcher Scarlett Stuner threw both games and threw strikes, walking just one hitter in 12 innings. The offense, after struggling in game one, put up three crooked numbers in game two to secure the split.

Gilman now sits at 6-5 in conference play with one game left at last-place Owen-Withee today, Thursday. The Pirates sit in fourth place behind Columbus (12-0), Neillsville-Granton (7-3) and Loyal-Greenwood (6-4).

Take away one inning and the Pirates likely sweep the Warriors. That inning was the bottom of the first in game one. Kayleigh James led off the game with a single, stole a base and wound up eventually scoring on a passed ball to give Gilman a short-lived 1-0 lead. Neillsville-Granton came back in the bottom half with two singles, a two-run double and a sacrifice fly to take a 3-1 lead.

Stuner and the Gilman defense allowed just one hit from there. The Pirates’ Allison Olynick, James and Raygen Soper turned a 6-4-3 double play to end the fourth.

But Gilman could only muster one more run in the third on Allie Olynick’s RBI triple. James doubled in the seventh and stole third, but Gilman was unable to knock her in.

Stuner allowed four hits, struck out two and hit one batter while issuing no walks.

“After the first three batters, she shut them right down,” Gilman head coach Brian Phelps said. “I was really happy with our defense. We really played well. That was true of the second game as well.”

Playing as the home team in game two, Gilman scored three times in the bottom of the first to reverse Neillsville-Granton’s early 2-0 lead. A four-run third made it 7-3 and a seven-run bottom of the sixth allowed Gilman to end the game early.

Abby Chaplinski led the offensive barrage by going four for five with five runs batted in. She also scored three runs. Chaplinski’s two-run homer highlighted the first-inning rally. Her two-run single up the middle in the sixth put the 10-run rule into effect.

Averie Olynick was two for three, walked and scored a run. Kenlyn Kroeplin was three for four with a run scored. Norah Noonan was two for four, scored twice and drove in one. Raygen Soper was two for four, walked and scored twice. Reece Weir was one for one, walked, was hit by a pitch and scored twice.

Stuner’s line in game two included two strikeouts, a hit batter and a walk. The Warriors got nine hits, but they were spread out enough to limit the damage.

Gilman, now 10-8 overall, has at least three non-conference tests lined up to close the regular season. On Friday, the Pirates will play 13-7 Clayton-Turtle Lake. That game will be played at 5 p.m. in Turtle Lake.

Gilman hosts a cross-county matchup with Rib Lake on Monday as well as a Tuesday contest with Colfax, the leaders of the Dunn-St. Croix Conference. Those games also start at 5 p.m.

Two Slamfest wins

While there is stress with hosting a major Saturday tournament like the Gilman-Thorp Slamfest, the actual play on the field was relatively stress-free for the Pirates in wins over Lake Holcombe-Cornell and Drummond Gilman began the day with a 10-0, sixinning win over their neighboring rivals, the Knights, scoring in every inning after the first. Stuner allowed seven hits and one walk while striking out five in the shutout win. She got help from her defense early, which turned a lineup into a double play in the top of the first inning.

The Pirates stranded two runners in the first but didn’t waste their opportunity in the second that was created by two-out walks to Lila Altamirano, Mylie Stephens and James. Averie Olynick drove them all in with a triple to get Gilman on the board.

Soper’s two-run double scored Chaplinski and Allison Olynick in the third to open up a 5-0 lead. Paige Daley drove in two with a base hit in the fourth. Gilman got a run in the fifth and then finished it with a two-run single by Olivia Szemraj in the sixth.

Averie Olynick was three for four and drove in four runs. Chaplinski was three for four and Allison Olynick was two for four.

In the afternoon game, Gilman had little trouble with Drummond as a six-run second inning set the tone for an 11-2 win that was called after six innings due to the event’s time limit.

After scratching across two runs in the first, the six-run second included an RBI double from Averie Olynick and a two-run double from Chaplinski. The Lumberjills got their two runs in the fourth inning. Gilman got one back in the bottom half and then capped the scoring with Allison Olynick’s drive that got past Drummond’s leftfielder for a two-run inside-the-park home run.

Stuner pitched three shutout and hitless innings, striking out four and walking one. Norah Noonan covered the last three innings and allowed three hits and two runs.

In games played in Gilman, Stevens Point Pacelli and Medford went 2-0 for the day as both beat Grantsburg, who was ranked number one in Division 3 coming into the tourney. Augusta also was 2-0.

Gilman wins slugfest

The night before Slamfest was a long one for the Pirates, but it finished on a positive note as they outlasted Loyal-Greenwood 20-19 in a three-hour Eastern Cloverbelt Conference slugfest.

Before they ever swung a bat, the Pirates were down 8-0, but they reduced most of that deficit with a six-run bottom of the first. An eight-run explosion in the third put Gilman ahead 14-12. It was 15-12 when Loyal-Greenwood put up a six-spot in the fifth to go up by three. Gilman’s five-run sixth put the Pirates back on top 20-18.

Loyal-Greenwood scored once in the top of the seventh and had runners on second and third with two outs when Stephens caught a fly ball in right to finally end it.

Gilman had 12 hits and drew 14 walks, but seven errors defensively made it tough on the Pirates and Stuner, who labored through 4.2 innings. She allowed 12 hits and 18 runs, but only eight of those runs were earned. She struck out three and walked four.

A major positive in the win was Noonan, who got the last seven out on just three hits and two walks. She struck out one and the seventh-inning run charged to her was earned.

“Norah came on in relief and threw really well,” Phelps said.

Pitcher Scarlett Stuner ducks as third baseman Abby Chaplinski throws across the diamond to retire a Lake Holcombe-Cornell hitter Saturday morning. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS