Posen comes home with a pair of shutout wins in league opener

The Posen softball team remained perfect on the season with a pair of very different ball games in their North Star League opener at Au Gres. Viking coach Glenn Budnick said the girls manufactured a win the way a fast-pitch softball team should in game one, 2-0, and then took a blow out victory in the twinbill, 12-0. Posen improved to 8-0 overall and 2-0 in the conference. The girls will host their first league home game today against Hale and then participate in the Rogers City Tournament Saturday, with a 10 a.m. game against Sault Ste. Marie. Tuesday they are at Alcona.

SENIOR BETH JULIAN picked up the wins in the shutout victories and improved to 6-0 on the season. ?She showed great command,? said Budnick. Julian one hit the Wolverines in game one and two hit them in the second contest. She struck out a total of nine during 11 innings of work and walked only two batters. Junior Jenny Ciarkowski has the other wins. She pitched the final inning of game two. Budnick said a perfectly executed sacrifice bunt by junior Megan Pieczynski brought in the winning run in the top of the third inning of the first game. After Megan Haske and Christina Bedarski walked with one out, and advanced on a passed ball, Pieczynski came up and bunted the ball to the first baseman, who picked the ball up and threw home. Haske wiped out the catcher on the slide and the throw went over her head, allowing Bednarski to score on the same play to give the Red and White a 2-0 lead.

AU GRES PUT some big time pressure on in the bottom of the sixth. Tasha Dewald doubled with one out, which was followed by a walk by the next batter. The runners would move up on a wild pitch, but Julian would strike out the No. 3 batter. The clean-up hitter would ground out to Megan Pieczynski for the final out. Posen?s only hit came from the bat of Ciarkowski. Budnick believes the layoff between games may have hurt, but the girls did make solid contact; they just ended up hitting the ball right at people. Many of the outs were line shots. That would all be a distant memory by the time the second game rolled around. Junior catcher Mary Calhoun started a three-for-four game with a leadoff single in the second inning. She would steal second and score on two passed balls.

IT WOULD stay 1-0 until the fourth inning when the Vikings scored four. Ciarkowski had a lead off single as a part of a three-for-four game. Julian followed with a single, while Calhoun ripped an RBI double to score Ciarkowski for the 2-0 advantage. Junior first baseman Roxann Hincka walked to load the bases. Julian was throw

n out on a fielder?s choice at the plate, but Calhoun would come in on a wild pitch. Bednarski laid down a bunt single to bring in Hincka. Megan Pieczynski singled to score Elyse Perrault, who hit into an earlier fielder?s choice. Posen broke the game wide open with a seven run sixth. Kori Latz got the inning started with a pinch-hit single. The bases became loaded after Bednarski and pinch hitter Jill Krajniak walked. Then the merry-go-round of runs started to come in. Pieczynski knocked in a run with a hit, Ashley Sobek earned a walk to bring in another run, and with one out Julian came through with a RBI single.

Pieczynski would score on a wild pitch. Sobek came in on a Calhoun single. Julian was tagged out when Hincka hit into a fielder?s choice. The runners advanced on a wild pitch and then came home on a two-RBI single by Latz. Collecting two hits and two RBI each were Pieczynski and Latz.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.