Tigers blow past Jaguars

By Andy Rennecke
MARSHALL — Just like every other athletic team in the area, the Marshall High softball team was just looking to play a game Friday.

The Tigers got that with a date against Renville County West. Marshall hadn’t played since last Saturday at a tournament in Shakopee where it went 0-3.

The Tigers built an early 4-0 lead and took advantage of five Jaguar errors in their 9-1 win. Marshall is now 4-8 on the season.

“We needed some confidence to get our bats going in. Overall, we did pretty good. It’s good to get another game in. Having not played since last Saturday probably isn’t a good thing at this time of the year,” MHS head coach Jack Houseman said. “We have a solid week of our season next week. It was good to play like this headed into those games.”

MHS scored four times in the first inning and sent eight batters to the plate against RCW starting pitcher Emma Sharpe.

“We’ve been struggling at the plate so it was good to get that early lead,” said MHS left fielder Kellie Ellefson, who finished 3-for-3 in the game. “We were strong right away. This boosted our confidence quite a bit. Now, we’re focused on playing well before the section tournament. If we get on top right away in the rest of our games, it will help us out.”

Bridget Bergstrom started the frame with a single and Karli Vandeputte reached on an error by the RCW second baseman. Bergstrom moved to third and Vandeputte went to second in the Jaguar miscue.

Then, Marshall first baseman Sarah Schneekloth drove them in with a double to left-center field to give the Tigers the lead for good at 2-0. Schneekloth later scored on an error by the RCW right fielder on a pop fly off the bat of Kelsey Verdoes to make it 3-0. Katie Vogl drove in Verdoes with an infield single later in the inning.

Marshall added a run in the third on an RBI single from Amanda VanLeeuwe. In the fourth, Ellefson scored on a passed ball by the RCW catcher to make it 6-0.

RCW managed a run off Vandeputte, who went all seven innings for MHS, in the top of the sixth to make it 6-1.

Marshall put it away in the bottom of the sixth by tacking on three more runs. Bergstrom drove in two with an RBI double and she later scored on a groundout by Vandeputte.

“Lately, we haven’t been hitting as well as we’ve wanted to,” Vandeputte said. “To be able to come out here and hit (Friday) was big. I think just about everybody had a hit in the game. It was good all the way around. It was a team effort. We just need to play to our potential. I think we showed a little bit of that.”

Vandeputte finished with eight strikeouts on the mound for MHS. She gave up four hits and walked five.

“She threw pretty well,” Houseman said of Vandeputte. “She got a little tired at the end, but she threw well enough to get us through.”

Said Vandeputte: “It felt good to come back and play. It had been a while for us. I was a little frustrated at myself at the end because I got a little tired. But I got through it.”

The Tigers finished with 11 hits and didn’t have any errors. Bergstrom went 2-for-4 at the plate and Sharpe went 2-for-4 for the Jaguars.

The Tigers have five games next week and possibly a sixth next Friday due to scheduling conflicts.

“We want to play some ball games and get rolling. Hopefully, we can start a little winning streak,” Houseman said.



RCW 000 001 0—1 4 5

MHS 401 103 x—9 11 0

RCW-Emma Sharpe, Amanda Schultz (6). MHS-Karli Vandeputte. WP-Vandeputte. LP-Sharpe. 2B: RCW-Jo Dahlbeck. M-Bridget Bergstrom, Sarah Schneekloth. 3B: M-Kelsey Verdoes.