Getting the job done in league DHs
GILMAN SOFTBALL
The Gilman Pirates did what they needed to do in the past week against the cellar dwellers of the Eastern Cloverbelt Conference, sweeping doubleheaders at Spencer and Owen-Withee to suddenly climb into third place in the league standings.
Monday’s wins at Spencer put Gilman at 5-5 in league play and 7-7 overall heading into the Pirates’ last two league home games tonight, Thursday, against Columbus Catholic and Friday against Loyal-Greenwood. Both teams beat the Pirates the first time around, but head coach Brian Phelps is curious to see how his young team fares the second time around.
“We’re going to keep growing,” Phelps said. “We’re 5-1 in our last six games and we’ve worked our way back to .500. At the start of the year we weren’t sure we’d get there. Hopefully we can sneak out one or two more at the end of this week.”
An 11-5 game-one win over the Rockets (1-9, 2-13) wasn’t secured until an offensive surge over the last three innings. A solo home run by Spencer’s Heavyn Kind put the Rockets up 3-2 in the bottom of third. That was still the score in the top of the fifth. Gilman’s leadoff hitter Tychelle Duellman reached on an error, which, as leadoff errors often do, led to runs. Ava Warner dropped down a perfect sacrifice bunt and Duellman scored on a base hit by Bryn Hendricks, who took second on the throw to the infield. With two down, freshman Abby Chaplinski lined a double to the gap in right-center to drive in Hendricks with the go-ahead run.
Gilman widened the lead to 7-3 in the sixth, loading the bases with one out on an Allison Krizan walk, an Eva Kopacz single and an infield single by Duellman. Krizan scored on a passed ball, Tatum Weir knocked in Kopacz with a groundout and Hendricks ripped a double to score Duellman.
The Rockets kept it close using two hits and two errors to pull within 7-5 in their half of the sixth. Gilman slammed the door with a four-run seventh that started with hits by Kopacz, Kayleigh James and Duellman to bring in one run. Wild pitches scored the others.
Hendricks continued her recent tear by going three for five. Kopacz was three for four, while Duellman was two for four with an RBI and three runs scored.
“Tychelle scored three runs,” Phelps said. “It’s good when you get your leadoff hitter on like that, then Ava usually does a good job of moving runners over, and then Bryn, Tatum and Abby are hitting the ball really well right now.”
Weir threw all seven innings for Gilman. She struck out 10 batters, walked only one and allowed seven hits. Two of the runs were earned. Berklie Ireland took the loss for Spencer.
Playing as the home team in game two, Gilman scored eight times in the bottom of the first and cruised to a 12-0, five-inning win. Weir only struck out two, but she didn’t walk a batter and gave up just one hit as the Pirates played their best defensive game of the spring, committing just one error.
Offensively, Hendricks stayed red hot, going two for three with a double and two runs scored. Chaplinski was two for two with a walk and three runs scored. Kenlyn Kroeplin was two for three and Weir was one for two with a double, two runs scored and she was hit by a pitch. Gilman battered three Spencer pitchers in the win.
Sweep at O-W
On Thursday, Gilman had no trouble with host Owen-Withee, easily sweeping the Blackhawks in an Eastern Cloverbelt doubleheader.
The Pirates took the first game 18-2 in three innings, highlighted by a 10-run top of the second. That big rally put the Pirates up 13-0. Five more runs in the third made it 18-0 before the Blackhawks got on the board in the bottom half, but didn’t do enough damage to stop the 15-run rule from ending the game.
Gilman drew 11 walks, was hit by two pitches and mixed in seven hits to rock Owen-Withee in the opener. James hit an RBI single, Warner had a hit, Hendricks hit a run-scoring triple and Weir had an RBI single to key the big 10-run second, which included seven walks and two Owen-Withee errors.
Warner and James finished two for two. James scored three times and Warner scored twice. Duellman drew three walks and scored three times. Hendricks added a sacrifice fly. Weir struck out two, walked one and allowed one hit and one earned run in the threeinning win.
Weir struck out five, walked three and allowed two hits in a 12-0, five-inning shutout in game two. She worked out of two-runner jams in the first and third innings to get the shutout.
Playing as the home team, Gilman put this one away quickly with a sevenrun first inning that included a two-run single by Chaplinski and a two-run, twoout hit from Warner. Kopacz drove in two runs in a four-run second inning with a key base hit and James had an RBI single. Chaplinski added a run-scoring groundout in the third.
“We went in and did what we were hoping to,” Phelps said. “We took care of business, got in and out of there in shortened games which helped save Tatum’s arm a little bit.”
