New London makes enough contact in 6th to end Raiders’ run

WIAA DIV. 2 SECTIONAL SOFTBALL

Last June, the New London Bulldogs ended the Medford softball team’s 17-game winning streak to start the season in an outstanding 1-0 pitcher’s duel.

On Tuesday, they ended Medford’s 2022 season in another battle dominated by pitching and defense, 2-0, in a WIAA Division 2 sectional semifinal.

After being limited to one hit through five innings by Medford’s Martha Miller, the Bulldogs strung together five singles in the bottom of the sixth to produce the game’s only runs. The top seed in the sectional half-bracket, the state’s thirdranked Division 2 team to end the regular season improved to 22-4 and will play Altoona (15-10), the third seed on the other side of the sectional today, Thursday, in Mosinee for a spot in next weekend’s state tournament.

Medford, ranked ninth in the state at season’s end, finished 19-7 and lost in the sectional semifinal round for the second straight year.

The Raiders had just two hits against New London’s top pitcher, sophomore Kenna Mix. She struck out eight, did not walk a batter and her defense did not commit an error behind her.

“It was a really good game. They’re a really good team,” Medford head coach Virgil Berndt said. “We just didn’t hit anything really hard. Their defense was good. Their shortstop made a couple of nice plays. We made all the plays defensively too.”

Laurissa Klapatauskas singled in the fourth and Allie Paulson singled in the seventh and were Medford’s only base runners. Both were infield hits.

Miller, in her second start back from injury, struck out seven and walked only one. She hit a batter as well. Five of New London’s six hits came in the decisive sixth inning. New London had one base runner in the first four innings, but then used a walk and a hit batter to offer the game’s first true offensive pressure in the fifth, though Miller induced a comebacker from number-nine hitter Brooklyn Fuerst to end that threat.

However, leadoff hitter Emma Reismann started the sixth inning with a bloop single that just got over the infield and was bunted to second by Sommer Krull. She scored on a roller by Molly Kable that got up the middle for a hit. Autumn Winkelman added another single. After Miller struck out Mix for the second out of the inning, Shelby Glodowski, who homered for New London’s only run against Medford last year, hit an RBI single and Jensen Mix added another hit before the inning finally ended.

“They didn’t hit anything hard either,” Berndt said. “Theirs fell in and ours didn’t.”

The loss marked the end of the line for a large eight-member senior class that included Klapatauskas, Rynn Ruesch, Makala Ulrich, Katie Brehm, Emma Brost, Abbie Frey, Katie Lybert and Milou Van den Boogard, but a strong group of eight juniors remains and will look to make another run at it in 2023.

“We played well this year, considering all that happened to us,” Berndt said referring to the team’s inconsistent offense and the injury to Miller that forced some lineup shuffling down the stretch. “There’s a good core coming back to build from, especially with everybody up the middle on defense.”