Lady Hornet softball wins SCC opener against Lady Pioneers

The Wautoma Lady Hornet softball team clipped the visiting Westfield Lady Pioneers 9-2 in SCC Conference action on April 13. Wautoma opened up the first inning gaining the lead 2-0 on an Ava Stahl single, Brianna Buechner walk, Sydney Dunn sacrifice bunt and Ava Butt 2-RBI single. The Lady Pioneers cut the deficit to one run in the fourth inning as Breanne Czaplewski walked and scored on a couple Lady Hornet defensive errors. However, the Hornet struck right back with four of their own with Larissa Piechowski reaching on a one out error, Braelynn Pica single, Liv Weiss sac bunt, Stahl RBI single, Buechner taking advantage of an error, and Dunn getting the same results to make it 6-1. Wautoma would extend the lead to 9-1 in the fifth inning as Bryn Gunderson reached on an error, Piechowski walk, Pica RBI single, Weiss fielder’s choice RBI and Stahl once again RBI double. The Lady Pioneer would not fold as they added a run in the seventh on a two-out Mya Reetz walk, Nadia Hoffa single and Brandi Lenz RBI single to complete the game score. Wautoma sophomore pitcher Liv Cieslik pitched a solid game going the distance while striking out four, four walks, four hits and no earned runs. The Lady Hornet offense took advantage of some Lady Pioneer defensive blunders yet still tallied nine hits led by Stahl (4x4, 2B, 2 RBI’s, 2 runs), Pica (2x3, RBI, 2 runs), Dunn (1x3, RBI, sac), Butt (1x3, 2 RBI’s, sac) and Weiss (1x2, sac, RBI). Westfield’s four hits came from Carley Drew, Hoffa (2x4) and Athalia Giuffre. Wautoma’s overall record is 4-4 while 1-0 in SCC Conference with Westfield 3-2 overall and 1-1 in SCC action.