Eagles split sunny weekend at home
After a slow start, the Chadron State softball team was able to capture the last win of the weekend on Sunday in the game against Metro State University here in Chadron.
To begin on Saturday, the Eagles went 1-1 in a win against Metro State and loss to Fort Lewis later on. Against Metro, Aryn Grywusiewicz, junior pitcher of Denver Colo., pitched a fabulous game by only letting one batter walk to base and striking out six others.
At the bottom of the third inning, Nikki Ritzen, senior outfielder of Chadron, hit a fly ball while Ashlynn Marino, senior catcher of Fresno, Calif., ran in through home plate. Now with the score tied at 1-1, the Eagles scored three more in the following inning. Katie Londo, junior third baseman of Colorado Springs, Colo., hit a double, followed by a single up the center on the diamond by Amy Schartz, senior first baseman of Brady.
Later in the game, Rebecca Wetsch, sophomore outfielder of Erie, Colo., hit a single RBI followed by Marino’s double RBI. The Eagles were able to capture the win after seven innings 4-2.
The Eagles took on Fort Lewis later on as the sun shone on the field.
Chadron got off to a hot start by scoring the first three points in the first inning after three Fort Lewis errors. The Skyhawks responded in the second and fourth innings by limiting their errors and five players to run past home plate.
Starting off pitching for the Skyhawks was Victoria Johnson, who stymied the Eagles to only two runs in the fifth inning when Marino had another double and Katelyn Kruger, freshman first baseman of Highlands Ranch, Colo., hit a double as well, sending Marino home. Katie Watkins, pitcher for Fort Lewis, pitched the last inning but did it cleanly, keeping the Eagles away from homeplate, and took the win 6-4.
Switching the games around, the Eagles took on Fort Lewis first on Sunday and were not able to capture the win as the Skyhawks swooped in and won 5-4.
Fort Lewis kept the lead the whole game, but Chadron tied it up 3-3 in the seventh inning off of an RBI hit by Schartz, sending Amanda Eisnpahr, sophomore infielder of McCook, home for the score.
Destinee DeHerrera did most the scoring for the Skyhawks with a home run and two other RBI’s. Doing most of the pitching was Kassie Haubert who allowed only five hits and struck out four Eagles. Katie Watkins pitched the last inning scorelessly and captured the win for Fort Lewis.
Looking to go 2-2 for the weekend, the Eagles had a huge margin of 6-1 in the game against Metro State. Sarah Knudsen, junior catcher of Parker, Colo., hit a grand slam, allowing the Eagles to have that advantage over the Roadrunners.
The score was tied 6-6 after big fifth and sixth innings for Metro when Kylee Polsley, junior pitcher of Omaha, let the runners on base. Breeze Phillips, freshman pitcher of Evergreen, Colo., then came in and got the final out of the fifth and continued pitching well in the final two innings.
Schartz made the final score with a shot over right center field to give the Eagles the 7-6 win.
“I knew I had to get a hit and hit it hard so the next two people could get a run in,” Schartz said.
Chadron travels to Denver, Colo., to play Regis University in a double header Saturday and Sunday. All games are RMAC games.