The Huskies defeated Junction City for the second time this year in a 6-4 contest at home on Friday, nearly securing a lock on second place in the Sky-Em League softball race.
Sweet Home, 8-2, is in second behind Elmira, 11-0, while Junction City is 7-4 and in third place. Sisters is 3-8. Cottage Grove is 2-8, and La Pine is 0-9.
The victory followed a 3-1 win at Cottage Grove on April 24.
Sweet Home 6, Junction City 4
The Huskies made a lot of mistakes on defense Friday, recording nine errors; but Junction City was never able to capitalize on them enough to get ahead..
The Huskies got a head start on Junction City, scoring three runs in the first inning to take the lead.
Sarah Wyatt led off with a single, followed by Katie Virtue. Megan Graville hit a bunt. Junction City fielded it but didn’t throw it, loading the bases. Megan Rubidoux, with two strikes against her, drove the ball up the third baseline to score a couple of runs. Emili Riggs hit a fly out to score the final runner.
Emily Marchbanks tries to catch a Junction City runner trapped between first and second. The runner was called safe .
“Three runs in the first inning was a huge inning for us, and we kept tacking it on,” said Coach Casey Humphrey. “As bad as we played defensively, we didn’t give up that one big inning.”
Junction City had bases loaded with two outs in two or three innings, Humphrey said, but the Huskies held them when it counted.
There were a couple of errors that helped Junction City, he said. “We made some errors, but they weren’t timely errors. They didn’t get kill us. Graville had good command of her pitching. We had confidence. We felt like we were going to hold on and pull it out.”
It was exciting to face such a good squad and win even when the Huskies weren’t playing their best softball, Humphrey said.
Pitching, Graville gave up nine hits, including a double. She struck out six and walked one.
In the seventh, with Junction City runners at first and second, she struck out the final batter, Humphrey said.
At bat, Wyatt went 2-4. Virtue went 3-4; Graville, 1-3; McKenzie Cochran, 1-3; Riggs, 1-4; and Rubidoux, 2-4.
Junction City 001 111 0 – 4 9 4
Sweet Home 301 101 x – 6 10 9
Sweet Home 3, Cottage Grove 1
The Huskies didn’t get a big inning, but they did knock in a run in each of the first three innings to defeat Cottage Grove on the road.
“Cottage Grove is much better than what a lot of people thought,” Humphrey said. The team struggled last year, but it brought a 3-1 ball game to the field.
Marchbanks started in the circle, pitching four innings, giving up three hits and a walk while striking out seven. Graville pitched the last three, giving up a run and two hits and striking out six.
At bat, Wyatt went 1-3. Sierra Thayer went 2-3, and Riggs went 2-2.
Sweet Home 111 000 0 – 3 5 0
Cottage Grove 000 010 0 – 1 5 2