Sweet Home beat its second-toughest opponent twice last week, locking down a second-place finish in the Sky-Em League’s softball season behind Elmira.
“We’re definitely playing really well,” said Coach Shane Cochran. “The girls are coming together pretty good, Hitting well, playing defense well. Looks like we’re peeking at the right time. I think the wins against Junction City were a pretty good positive for the girls.”
The Huskies defeated Junction 11-5 at home May 10 and 11-1 under the 10-run rule in five innings on the road Friday.
Sweet Home lost just twice in regular season, both to Elmira, which finished as league champion. The Huskies defeated Elmira once and so far are the only to team to beat the Falcons at all this year.
Sweet Home finishes the season at 13th in Oregon Student Activities Association rankings. Elmira is ranked sixth.
The Huskies will host a play-in game against North Bend at 4:30 p.m. Thursday. North Bend is ranked 20th in the state with an 8-7 record in league and a 12-9 record overall. The Bulldogs finished fourth in the Far West League.
“They’re real solid,” Cochran said. “They definitely can play. I think we can match up real well against them. If we keep playing like we’ve been playing, we should be able to handle them and hopefully come out with a win.
“I think we’ll have to have a couple of our key batters hitting well, like Madi Barringer is going to have to hit well, and Makenna Melbye is going to have to hit well. Ally Tow seems to be coming on really strong right now. We’re definitely batting good, no doubt about that.”
This week, before the play-in game, the Huskies were scheduled to play an extra game against Blanchet Catholic of Salem on Tuesday.
Junction City finished third in the Sky-Em with a record of 9-6 in league and 14-11 overall. Sutherlin finished fourth with a record of 6-9 in league and 9-14 overall. Sisters was fifth with a record of 2-13 in league and 2-16 overall. Cottage Grove was last, with a 1-4 record in league and 1-20 overall record .
SH 11, Junction City 1
Friday, the Huskies opened their assault with two runs out of the gate.
Britney Zook doubled to reach base and then scored the first run when Madi Barringer grounded out to second base. Ally Tow scored the second run on a single by Makenna Melbye.
The Huskies poured it on with three more runs in the second inning. They went scoreless in the third, but added another pair of runs in the fourth and four more in the fifth.
Junction City scored a single run in the bottom of the fifth.
The Huskies racked up 18 hits on the day, with Zook, Sarita Zanona and Tow collecting three each. Barringer, Melbye and Sydney Mauer had two each. Hitting once were Brianna Hoffman, Marissa Kurtz and Sunhee Bitter.
Zook had a double, three runs and three RBIs. Zanona had two runs and an RBI. Barringer and Two each had two runs and two RBIS. Tow also hit a double. Mauer hit a double and had a run and an RBI. Bitter scored a run.
For Junction City, Lindsey Striping, Nicole Snyder and Keiley Lertherwood each had a hit. Lertherwood scored the team’s only run.
In the circle, Hoffman gave up three hits, one walk and one earned run. She struck out six.
For Junction City, Mariah Ohman gave up 11 earned runs, 18 hits and two walks. She struck out two Huskies.
Sweet Home230 24 – 11 18 0
Junction City000 01 – 1 3 4
SH 11, Junction City 5
On May 10, Junction City scored the first run in the first inning, but the Huskies came back with two of their own when Tow tripled to score Zanona and Melbye singled to score Tow.
Junction City scored four more, its last runs of the game, in the second inning.
The Huskies went scoreless in the second inning but got ahead in the the bottom of three.
Barringer reached base on a fielder’s choice at shortstop, scoring Zook. Melbye Doubled to centerfield to score Barringer and Tow to tie the game. Hoffman singled and scored Melbye for the winning run.
The Huskies added five more runs in the fifth inning.
The Huskies hit the ball 11 times, with Zanona, Tow and Melbye leading the way with two each. Hitting once were Zook, Barringer, Hoffman, Kurtz and Bitter. Zanona and Melbye each had doubles. Zook hit a triple, and Tow hit two triples.
Zook scored a run and had an RBI. Zanona scored twice. Barringer scored twice, with one RBI. Tow scored two runs, with three RBIs. Melbye had a run and three RBIs. Joffman had one RBI, and Bitter had a run and an RBI.
Leading at bat for Junction City were Ohman, Snyder and Kayla Courtney, who each hit a double.
Pitching, Hoffman struck out 11 Junction City batters. She gave up five hits, one walk and five runs, one of them earned.
For Junction City, Ohman gave up 10 hits, one walk and 11 runs, five of them earned.
Junction City140 000 0 – 5 5 4
Sweet Home204 050 x – 11 11 1