Wildcats take two in Elmwood over weekend
The Minster Wildcats softball team made the long trip to Elmwood to play Elmwood and Wauseon. Minster beat Elmwood 15-5 in the first game and beat Wauseon 7-0 in the second game. Minster improved to 161, while Elmwood fell to 4-6 and Wauseon fell to 8-5.
Minster-Elmwood Minster was able to get 12 runs in the final 3 innings to run-rule the Elmwood Royals in the first game of the doubleheader.
About the game, Minster Head Coach Robb Hemmelgarn stated, “We jumped on them early. That’s what we wanted to do. You never know after a long bus trip what you get on the field. They got the 2 runs. We’re going to fight a little bit here. Then, they took the lead. We had four at-bats left and kind of to the point now. We’ll get our swings in and we did and buried them.”
The Wildcats started off strong against Royals starter Allyie Reynolds as Reece Albers reached on a double and Rylin Trego singled her in. Addi Inskeep then doubled to drive in another run. Mikaela Hoskins grounded out to advance Inskeep to third, and Hannah Oldiges hit a sac fly to drive in another run to give Minster a quick 3-0 lead. In the bottom of the first, Elmwood responded off Minster starter Mikaela Hoskins. Trinity Sander singled and Tianna Galbraith was hit by a pitch. After a steal put runners on second and third, the next batter struck out. Leah Allison singled to score 2 to make the score 3-2 after 1.
Reynolds was able to get out of a two-out jam in the second inning with a ground out with runners on second and third. Hoskins worked a 1-2-3 second to keep the Royals off the board. Elmwood was able to get Minster 1-2-3 in the third, and then the Royals went to work. After a quick two outs, Galbraith hit a solo home run to tie the game at 3. Mariella Garcia was able to get on with an error. After stealing second, she scored on
another error committed by the Wildcats to make it 4-3 at the end of three.
About the inning, Hemmelgarn stated, “We gave them a little bit. I told the d we needed to button that up and make fundamental plays. We didn’t do that that inning and it bit us, and they got ahead and after that, we responded with our bats.”
Minster was able to respond. After getting two quick outs, the Wildcats went on a hitting spree. Albers singled, Trego singled, and an error scored 1 to tie the game at 4. Hoskins then singled to score a second run. A wild pitch scored a third run to give Minster a 6-4 lead. Emma Linn doubled to score two more to make the score 8-4 at the end of 3 and a half. Minster was able to get out of a two-onnobody-out jam with no damage to keep the score 8-4 at the end of 4.
The Wildcats continued to put up runs in the fifth. Hailee Albers homered off new pitcher Addi Hoffman. Alayna Prenger singled and Reece Albers walked to put runners on first and second with nobody out. Trego sacrificed the two runners to second and third. Then, a wild pitch scored one and an Inskeep single scored another to make the score 11-4. Hoffman was able to get out of the inning with no more damage. Elmwood was able to get 1 back on an Allison single to score Galbraith to make the score 11-5 at the end of 5.
Minster continued to add to their lead in the sixth with a combination of a long ball and a small ball. Brooklyn Osterloh doubled and came around to score on a Prenger sacrifice fly. Reece Albers tripled with two outs and came in to score with a Trego single. Inskeep then homered to make the score 15-5. A flyout ended the inning. Elmwood needed to score one to continue the game, but Hoskins retired the side 1-2-3 to end the game.
Mikaela Hoskins pitched a complete game giving up four runs on four hits. Rylin Trego had four hits, including a double, Reece Albers had three hits, including a triple, and Addi Inskeep had three hits
and four RBI, including a home run, to lead Minster. Elmwood was led by Tianna Galbraith who had two hits, including a home run, and Leah Allison had two singles and 3 RBI.
About Mikaela Hoskins, Hemmelgarn stated, “The errors we had go against her, but in her head, she’s pitching well. Jamie, behind the plate, did well and we got some subs in at the end, so that’s a good thing.”
Minster-Wauseon The Minster Wildcats used two big innings and a strong pitching performance by Brooklyn Osterloh to beat the Wauseon Indians 7-0.
About the game, Hemmelgarn stated, “It was a good day for us. We did the 0,0,5,0, 0, again, but we tacked on two at the end. It’s a long day and the girls had a lot of at-bats. They’re not paying quite as much attention to their swing and when they do that it shows, getting under balls and not driving through. We adjusted and played well enough to win.”
The first two innings were dominated by the two pitchers, Ella Hageman for Bluffton and Brooklyn Osterloh for Minster, as they allowed no runs on few hits.
Minster broke through in the third with consecutive singles by Alayna Prenger, Reece Albers, and Rylin Trego loading the bases. Addi Inskeep then hit a grounder that eluded the Indian’s fielders to score 2. Mikaela Hoskins doubled to score another 2 and came around to score on a Hailee Albers sacrifice fly to make the score 5-0. Hageman got the next three out to keep the score 5-0. Osterloh continued to mow through the Indian’s lineup.
The next two innings were again dominated by the pitchers as neither team was able to score. In the sixth, Hageman was able to get the Wildcats out 1-2-3. In the bottom of the sixth, Wauseon was able to get runners on first and second with a double and a hit-by pitch, but Osterloh was able to get the next batter to pop