Emily Marchbanks pitched a nearly perfect game to lead the Huskies shutting out La Pine 16-0 at home Friday afternoon.
Marchbanks struck out 11 batters and gave up no walks or hits. The Hawks reached base only twice, both on errors.
The Huskies took the lead with two runs in the first inning, following up with six in the third and eight in the fourth.
La Pine’s got a lot of injuries,” said Huskies Coach Gary Barr. “He’s playing without six or seven starters due to various issues, mostly injuries, so that was mostly their JV team.”
Caytlin Gillespie led at bat, going 2-2 with a double, Barr said. “It was really good to see her break out.”
Also contributing a hit each were Katie Virtue, Sierra Thayer, Marchbanks, Hailey Hummer and Molly Dadey.
The Huskies are 5-5 in league and 12-7 overall following two losses to Sisters earlier in the week.
That places them fourth in league behind Junction City in third, Elmira in second and Sisters in first.
“Junction City still has Sisters coming up,” Barr
Photo by Sean C. Morgan
MCKENZIE COCHRAN slides home, scoring a run against La Pine on Friday.
said, and the Huskies’ last two games are against Junction City.
The Huskies also were scheduled to face La Pine on Monday followed by Cottage Grove, which is a better team than its record shows, Barr said. The Lions lost 4-3 to Junction City.
We’re going to have to play well,” Barr said. “I’m pretty sure we’ll have to win out to get third place.”
Sisters is pretty solidly in first place, Barr said. Sisters beat Elmira the last time they tangled and must face Elmira one more time. Elmira could end with three losses to Sisters.
There is probably a scenario where Sweet Home could end up in second, Barr said, but that all depends on what happens with other teams in the league.
We’re going to cheer for Cottage Grove (3-7 in league) unless they’re playing us,” Barr said.
La Pine 000 00 – 0 0 3
Sweet Home 206 8x – 16 7 2
Sisters 4, Sweet Home 3
The Huskies lost 4-3 at home on April 23 in the first of two games at home to Sisters.
That was the heartbreaker,” Barr said. “We had beaten them the first time at Sisters 7-5. We only needed one of them.”
That would have placed the Huskies second in league, and Sweet Home would win a tie with Sisters based on the record.
The Huskies scored two runs in the second inning to get the lead. Sisters scored in the third. Going into the seventh inning, the Huskies were holding a 2-1 lead.
Marchbanks had struck out two Sisters Outlaws in the top of the seventh. With one out, the next Outlaw reached base on a ground ball, followed by a walk. The next batter hit a triple to score both base runners. A Sweet Home error scored the third, game-winning run.
We were one out from closing it out with nobody on,” Barr said.
In the bottom of the inning, the Huskies scored one more time. McKenzie Cochran reached first when she was hit by a pitch. She stole second on two outs. Virtue singled to score Cochran, but the next batter grounded out.
The Huskies had five hits on the game, led by Virtue going 2-4 with a triple. Megan Graville hit a double, while Marchbanks and Kelli Fanning each had a hit.
Pitching, Marchbanks gave up only three hits and one walk while striking out 10 batters. On the day, out of 11 runs, only four were earned and two in this game.
She pitched really well,” Barr said. “Sisters is a pretty good hitting team overall. Emily had good velocity and kept the ball down.”
The Huskies committed four errors on the game.
We’re working on it,” Barr said. The team is drilling constantly on defense. “We’re making strides. This is a process.”
Sisters 001 000 3 – 4 3 0
Sweet Home 020 000 1 – 3 5 4
Sisters 7, Sweet Home 0
Sisters shut out the Huskies in the second game.
The Outlaws scored two in the first, three in the third and one each in the fifth and sixth.
Marchbanks gave up five hits, two walks and two earned runs.
She pitched hard in that first game,” Barr said. “She was very good when you consider those were back-to-back games.”
At bat, Virtue, Thayer and Hummer collected one hit each.
Sisters 203 011 0 – 7 5 1
Sweet Home 000 000 0 – 0 3 4