Junction City 6, Sweet Home 1
The Huskies rode a softball roller coaster last week, ending with a 6-1 loss to Junction City at home on Friday and beginning with a 12-2 win against Junction City on the road on May 7, to earn a post-league play-in spot at Douglas on Thursday.
“If we play solid, we should be able to take that game, I think,” said Coach Gary Barr. Douglas is ranked at 22 in the state, while the Huskies are ranked 12th.
The Huskies finish the regular season 9-6 in fourth place behind Junction City, 10-5; Sisters, 11-4; and Elmira, 12-3. Cottage Grove finished with three wins, and La Pine had none.
“It was a pretty tough league,” Barr said. “It turns out four teams were very good, and Junction City really improved toward the end of the season to make it even tougher.”
On Friday, “errors bit us a little bit,” Barr said. “We needed to hit the ball a little better. In that game, we hit a lot of nice line shots, but it was at an infielder or an outfielder. The previous game, everything was falling. We had 21 hits. I don’t think we’re hitting that much worse.”
Junction City scored its first run in the first inning and led the whole way, while the Huskies scored a run in the third.
The Huskies had just five hits against the same pitcher, Dvorak, who struck out three and walked one. Barr thought she threw a little better on Friday.
For Sweet Home, Emily Marchbanks gave up seven hits, with three strikeouts, one walk and one hit batter.
At bat, Marchbanks went 2-3 with a double. Katie Virtue, Kelli Fanning and Hailey Hummer each had singles.
“I’m really happy with how we’ve been over the last six games of the season,” Barr said. The team has raised its batting average from .287 to .327, which is a big change for an entire team.
“I’m feeling our hitting is doing better,” Barr said. “We have fewer errors, and Emily’s been consistent on the mound. The little things have got to go our way.”
Junction City 101 202 0 – 6 7 0
Sweet Home 001 000 0 – 1 5 3
Sweet Home 12, Junction City 2
The Huskies dominated at the plate earlier in the week to get the win.
“We just pounded the ball, our best hitting game of the year by far,” Barr said. The game opened with a double, followed by a homerun by Megan Graville, four singles and a double. Batter number eight was hit by a pitch, and batter number nine was the first out. The Huskies hit four more singles after that.
“That was an amazing start,” Barr said. There were 11 “honest to goodness” base hits in the first inning.
And neither team committed an error.
The Huskies scored 10 in the first inning and then again in the fourth and seventh. Junction City scored two in the fourth to prevent a win under the 10-run rule in the fifth inning.
“She was the same pitcher,” Barr said. “I thought she was a little bit better on Friday.”
The Huskies still hit the ball Friday but kept hitting line drives into players, he said. “Some days they find the gaps, and some days they don’t.”
On May 7, they found the gaps.
At bat, Virtue went 3-5 with a double and homerun. Graville went 4-5 with a homerun. Sierra Thayer and Marchbanks each went 3-5. Caytlin Gillespie and McKenzie Cochrain each went 2-4, and Hailey Hummer went 2-2. Fanning and Thorpe both singled.
Pitching Marchbanks walked no one and struck out two, giving up six hits.
Sweet Home (10)00 100 1 – 12 21 0
Junction City 000 200 0 – 2 6 0