Sweet Home’s softball players opened their season last week with a 10-0 win over Madras on Tuesday, March 18, at home, before letting Marist slip away with a 9-8 win the next day.
“It was a pretty good start,” said Coach Emily Marchbanks of the wins, adding that the Huskies started both games aggressively at the plate but cooled off later in the games.
The Huskies took a 5-0 lead against Madras in the first inning, adding three more in the fourth and two in the fifth inning to end the game on the 10-run rule.
Hannah Sieminski, Anabelle Morris and Jocelyn Fairchild all scored two runs each, as, Marchbanks said, Sweet Home’s bottom of the order brought them home with timely hits. Katriana “Peanut” Harris and Trinity Victor drove in two runs each to lead the team.
Harris pitched five innings, striking out four and walking two White Buffalo. Madras had five errors, which helped the Huskies.
Against Marist, Sweet Home again jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, before the Spartans came back in the third to go up 3-2.
But the Huskies answered with six runs in the bottom of the third, and although Marist scored again in the sixth, Sweet Home led 8-6 going into the seventh inning. The Spartans took advantage of some “small mistakes that made big differences” by Sweet Home to score three runs, which the hosts couldn’t answer.
Marchbanks said her team will be working on finishing as aggressively as they start and avoiding the errors that cost them.
Overall, though, she said she is encouraged by what she saw from her players.
“I felt like we’re picking up where we left off last year,” she said, noting that the Huskies last year committed multiple errors against Madras. “The girls improved a lot last year.
“We had a much better showing,” she said of this year’s start.
Marist has strong hitters, which caused some problems for Harris and Miley Smith, who relieved her in the fourth inning. Together they gave up 14 hits, striking out five.
Marchbanks said Natalie Smith turned in good performances behind the plate in both games and Anabelle Morris recorded three RBIs in the two games.
Up next for Sweet Home is the Hidden Valley Tournament March 27-29 in Grants Pass.
Their next home game will be April 8 vs. Cottage Grove, weather permitting.