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Wednesday April 16, 2008
By Robert Jackson
Sports Editor
Last year the Prairie Stars dropped both games in a doubleheader against the William Woods University Owls by a combined score of 20-0. This year the team managed to win one of the two games last Wednesday.
In the first game of the doubleheader the Stars fell 1-0. Brianne Moeller continued her hot pitching by spreading six hits over seven innings while also adding six strikeouts. Over three starts against Quincy, Columbia, and William Woods, Moeller averaged a 0.333 earned run average.
“You hope that you get your pitcher to limit walks and keep the ball down,” Softball Head Coach Joe Fisher said. For the game Moeller issued no walks.
But the lone run came when Moeller hung a curveball to pinch hitter Chelsea Loethen in the top of the fifth inning. Loethen had pinch hit for T.J. Quick and the freshman smacked the curveball over JoAnna Eddy’s head into the right field grass to drive in the lone run of the game.
The Prairie Stars missed a chance to respond in their part of the fifth. After Ashley Schafer singled to start the inning, the ninth hitter, Kristan Delafeld struck out after three failed bunt attempts.
“We were one big hit away,” Fisher said, “and by one big hit I don’t mean a double or a home run.” For the coach, it can be something as small as a well-placed bunt to advance runners. “In softball, especially in close games, getting runners over is huge,” Fisher said.
Errors executing plagued the Prairie Stars immediately afterwards. Once Delafeld bunted the ball foul for the third time, Schafer was picked off at first by the Owls’ catcher Laura Seipp during the Stars next at bat.
After the loss, Fisher reminded the team they had runners on base in four of the seven innings, re-emphasizing how one “big hit” could have changed the outcome of the game.
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