The Merrill girls picked up a needed Valley win with last Tuesday’s 5-3 triumph over Marshfield, but D.C. Everest put a hurt on the squad on Monday, with back-to-back blowout wins of 12-2 and 15-5.
The Jays used the big ball to put away Tuesday’s contest.
“We played a decent game,” MHS coach Matt Ellenbecker said. “Too many runners left on base continues to be a problem. Also, some misplayed balls lead to a couple of unearned runs for Marshfield. Pulling out the victory was a team effort, though, as five girls each chipped in with RBIs to get us our runs. Our nine hits were spread out throughout the game amongst seven of our starters, so we didn’t have a big inning, but we were able to put enough runs on the board.”
The 5th may not have been overwhelming, but it sure was critical. In the top of the frame, the Tigers had tied it up at 3-3. But Merrill bumped back with a pair or runs for the 5-3 final margin.
Byer led it off with a “booming” triple to dead center and Mariah Turenne doubled her home. Two batters later, Lindsay Krueger got a big 2-out base hit to score Turenne.
Byer and Makayla Heckendorf batted 2-3. Byer, Brianna LaMonica and Leesha Kleinschmidt added RBIs.
“We did a better job getting bunts down this game and we were able to steal a few bases, but we still left runners on second and third too often,” Ellenbecker said. “We’ll keep working on our hitting and getting the bats going.
“Makayla pitched a very good game for us,” Ellenbecker said. “In the middle innings they got a couple of hard hits on her, but we made an adjustment and she went out and shut them down the rest of the way. Seven innings with one earned run should win you a lot of ball games.”
Heckendorf (3 H, 2 W, 4 K, 3 R, 1 ER in 7 I) collected the victory.
Greened
Six-run innings were the Bluejay’s bane on Monday.
D.C.E. used one in the 2nd inning of the 12-2 win and two-in the 3rd and 5th innings-of Game 2.
“The big inning got us in both games,” Ellenbecker said. “Makayla does a good job throwing strikes, but we walked the #9 hitter to lead off two innings today and D.C.E. put up five and six runs in those frames. We were letting runners get on base in front of their 3-hitter, Alayna Krejci, and she made us pay all day with 11 RBI in the two games. The bottom in the third for Everest in Game 2 started walk, error, weakly-hit single, bases clearing double. We can’t help teams set the table for their top hitters.
“I’m disappointed in how the first game went for us. We should play Everest tougher than we did. We need to get more help from the bottom of our batting lineup to put up more runs. We have to play better defensively. Double-headers are going to be tough for us all year against good teams.We are asking a lot of Makayla Heckendorf to face good hitters seven and eight times in a single day.”
Krueger homered in Game 1, and homered and tripled while going 3-3 in Game 2. Kleinschmidt had 2 hits.
Merrill fell to 2-5 on the season (1-3 in the WVC) with the loss. Everest is at 9-3 and 6-1, while Marshfield is 1-8 and 1-3.
“We’ll continue to work and get better,” Ellenbecker said. “We’re not happy at 2-5 but our best ball is ahead of us. Tourney time is in a couple of weeks and we need to keep building and improving.”