GILMAN SOFTBALL - Gilman gets two wins; still things to fix in home stretch

GILMAN SOFTBALL

The Gilman Pirates may have perfectly demonstrated the sports phrase “winning ugly” Tuesday, but a win is a win and they’ll take it.

The Pirates took a back-and-forth Eastern Cloverbelt Conference softball matchup 16-15 over visiting Neillsville-Granton in game one of what was supposed to be a doubleheader. The decision was made afterwards to postpone game two to Monday as one line of rain and thunder had just moved through and it appeared on radar another was on its way.

The win was Gilman’s second straight and improved the Pirates’ league record to 7-2 and their overall mark to 7-6.

But with less than two weeks to go before WIAA tournament play begins, Gilman knows there are areas to fix if it’s going to make any kind of run.

“We just didn’t come out ready to play,” Gilman head coach Brian Phelps said. “The girls gutted it out. They found a way to win, that’s the best thing you can say.”

A five-run bottom of the fifth turned the game in Gilman’s favor for good, turning a 12-10 deficit into a 15-12 lead. It was 16-12 going into the seventh. The Warriors pushed three runs across in that inning, but the Pirates escaped further damage, getting the last two outs on back-to-back fielder’s choice ground balls with shortstop Kenlyn Kroeplin throwing to third baseman Abby Chaplinski for the outs.

“This last inning the ball was slippery (for pitcher Danielle Mann),” Phelps said. “We were just calling change-ups and straight down the middle to just take the outs and fortunately we got them.”

A nine-run first inning countered Neillsville-Granton’s four-run rally in the top half.

The Warriors got those runs on an assortment of seeing-eye hits, but an error in the middle of the inning made the inning bigger than it should have been.

Neillsville-Granton was likely saying the same thing, however, after three of its errors contributed to Gilman’s big bottom half. Chaplinski’s two-run double got Gilman on the board. A run scored on an error on a ball hit by Jayda Rosemeyer.

The first of two Gilman base-running miscues on infield flies during the game resulted in two outs, but one run did score on Scarlett Stuner’s pop-up that was actually dropped. After walks to Mylie Stephens and Allison Olynick loaded the bases, the Warriors made a bad throw on Kayleigh James’ grounder, allowing two runs to score and make it 6-4. Kroeplin’s two-run single made it 8-4 and Danielle Mann added the last RBI with a base hit.

The Warriors turned three hits and an error into two runs in the top of the second. Gilman got one back with Olynick’s basesloaded walk. Down 10-8, Neillsville-Granton scored two runs on wild pitches and added an RBI double from Sydney Subke and an RBI single from Shylah Walk in the top of the fifth.

Gilman’s game-changing rally started with Mann getting hit by a pitch. Ava Warner walked. Two strikeouts from pitcher Klarissa Canfield gave the Warriors a chance to get out of the inning, but an error brought in Mann, Olynick and James walked to force in the tying run, the goahead run scored on a wild pitch and Chaplinski and Mann drove in runs on bases-loaded walks before a strikeout finally ended the inning.

Mann pitched all seven innings for Gilman. She struck out six and walked only two. Neillsville-Granton (5-5, 5-9) had 18 hits.

The Pirates needed just seven hits to score their 16 runs. Chaplinski and Kroeplin each had two of them. They drew 16 walks and were hit by two pitches as well.

The Pirates’ busiest stretch of the season continues today, Thursday, with a home game against the conference’s current cellar- dweller Owen-Withee. The Pirates host Loyal-Greenwood Friday, are slated to face Drummond at 10 a.m. and Glenwood City at 4 p.m. in Saturday’s Gilman-Thorp Slamfest and will host Neillsville Monday to complete the doubleheader. The Pirates have a non-conference trip to Colfax on the schedule for Tuesday.

A five-inning win

Gilman started a bit slowly Friday as well, but four runs in the third inning and seven more in the fourth broke the game open in the Pirates’ 16-5, five-inning win over Loyal-Greenwood in Greenwood.

The Pirates had 11 hits and drew 10 walks with Ava Warner going two for five and scoring twice and Kroeplin also going two for five with two runs scored.

Mann struck out five and walked one while allowing six hits.

Loyal-Greenwood led 3-1 after two in- nings. Two walks preceded Warner’s hit to jump-start the third-inning rally. With two outs, James and Kroeplin came up with clutch singles to drive in the go-ahead runs. The hosts then tied it with two runs in the bottom half.

But Loyal-Greenwood’s hopes for a win ended in the top of the fourth. Walks and errors did most of the early damage in the inning, but Chaplinski had a big hit late and Mann capped it with a double. Warner, Stuner and Kroeplin had hits in a four-run fifth.

Gilman first baseman Jayda Rosemeyer stretches and catches a throw from third baseman Abby Chaplinski to retire Neillsville-Granton’s Emerson Ormond on a second-inning ground ball during Tuesday’s 16-15 win. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS

Scarlett Stuner gets her lead off third base during the bottom of Tuesday’s second inning. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS