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Mother Nature turned the Wautoma four team softball event at Bird Creek Park into a perfect day as she irrigated the playing surface perfectly prior to game time at 10 a.m.
The day was filled with quality teams and each team (Bonduel, River Valley, Wautoma and Westby) had players making incredible 2.0 plays throughout the day. Wautoma would lose to the Bonduel Lady Bears 5-3 in the first game to take on the loser of the Westby / River Valley game (9 innings of play) which happened to River Valley. The Lady Hornets would be handed a tough loss to River Valley 3-2 in the second game that came down to the last play of the game.
In the Lady Hornets’ first game against Bonduel, both teams would do most of their scoring damage in the first inning as the score was 3-3 after one inning was completed. The home team, via coin flip, Wautoma was able to score on an Ava Stahl lead-off walk, Brianna Buechner single, Sydney “Miss RBI Clutch” Dunn 2-RBI triple and Ava Butt sacrifice fly RBI. That would be all the Lady Hornets would be able to muster as a combination of great Bears defense and missed opportunities on execution. The Bears would add one run in the second and another in the third as that was the only scoring.
Liv Cieslik was dealt the tough loss pitching four innings while punching out two Bear batters, six hits, three walks and four earned runs. Butt finished the last three innings striking out two, a hit, HBP and a walk giving up zero runs. Wautoma only managed three hits with Buechner (1x3, run), Dunn (1x3, 3B, 2-RBI’s, run) and Butt (1x2, RBI, sac) as the Bear’s stymie defense prevented at least four more hits.
The Wautoma Lady Hornets would lose yet another heartbreaker 3-2 vs the River Valley Lady Falcons in the second game. Again, the storyline was some incredible defensive gems by both teams. Both teams would put a run on the board in the first inning as the Lady Hornets would score on a Stahl lead-off double, Buechner walk, Dunn sac bunt and Butt RBI sacrifice fly. The Lady Falcon squad would get one of their runs in the third to take a 2-1 lead and another in top of the sixth to extend the lead. Wautoma would answer back on a Buechner double and RBI single by Butt to cut the deficit. The Hornets shut down River Valley in the top of seven to set up a potential tie or win. Braelynn Pica led with a two-strike floater over the first basewoman, Kendall Gustke sacrifice bunt and Ava Stahl hard hit ball shaded to right-center that the centerfielder picked and gunned the Hornet runner out at the plate.
Games can be won or lost by a half second is the beauty of it. Wautoma tallied eight hits but only could get two runs across. Stahl (2x4, 2B, run), Buechner (2x2, 2B, SB, BB) and Pica (2x3) had two hits a piece while Butt (1x2, 2 RBI’s, sac) and Weiss (1x3) owned a hit. Larissa Piechowski started the game going three innings while giving up four hits, two walks, HBP and one earned run. Cieslik finished the game giving up two hits, walk, HBP and an earned run.
Wautoma’s overall record dropped to 11-9 with a 6-2 record in SCC play.
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