C-A softball puts up 18 runs on Blackhawks

In their final home game of 2023, the Colby-Abby softball team went out in style, putting up 14 runs in the bottom of the first inning against Owen-Withee last Friday evening. The co-op turned their season-best inning into an 18-3 blowout of the Blackhawks, their significant lead ending the game in the third.

For the first inning-and-a-half of Friday’s contest, the co-op had all their projected starters on the field, something that they have not had the luxury of enjoying for much of the season. And while an injury in the top of the second would make that reunion short lived, the Colby-Abby squad did more than enough damage in just that one inning to put the game out of reach.

Following a one-two-three top of the first from starting pitcher Tatum Bargender and the co-op defense, the lineup stepped up to deliver their most effective outing this season. Thanks in part to errors gifted by Blackhawks fielders, 13 straight Colby-Abby batters reached safely to start the bottom of the frame. This gave the home team an incredible 11-0 lead before the first out had been recorded.

Neveah Treankler opened the inning with a double down the third base line, the first of 18 plate appearances for the co-op in the first. She came around to score on an error by the Blackhawks on the next at-bat, a sign of things to come.

A combination of walks, errors, and aggressive baserunning quickly saw the co-op jump out to 5-0 lead. Designated hitter Taylor Hammel drove in two more by putting the ball into play, helped along by another throwing error from Owen-Withee. A few batters later, with bases loaded, Bargender helped her own cause by sneaking a hit through the infield and knocking in all three of the baserunners to put Colby-Abby in the double digits. Halie VanLuven followed up Bargender’s hit with a single of her own, bringing in her pitcher and raising the co-op’s total runs to 11, all before a single out could be recorded by the visitors.

While the Owen-Withee defense would settle down after VanLuven’s hit, the home team wasn’t quite done yet. Josie Higley and Hammel drove in three more runs before the end of the frame, pushing Colby-Abby’s lead out to 14-0.

A comeback to the pitcher in the top of the second would remove Bargender from the contest early with an injury, but VanLuven would step up to the mound and strand two Owen-Withee runners at C/A

second and third.

Harrison Schmitt and McKinley Klabon drove in a pair of runs for the co-op in the bottom of the second to expand the ir lead out to 16-0.

The Blackhawks broke through with a three-run, inside- the-park home run in the top of the third to potentially keep the game alive, but Colby-Abby answered with two more runs in the bottom half of the frame to enact the mercy rule and end the game in the third inning.

Following their victory over Owen-Withee, the co-op made a trip to Gilman on Monday for their regular season finale against the Pirates. While the Colby-Abby squad faired better against their Cloverbelt-East opponents than in their first meeting, the Pirates still walked away with the 10-4 victory.

With the loss, Colby-Abby’s final regular season record will stand at 4-9, one win short of their five wins from last year.

Their next challenge comes in the form of the Lakeland Thunderbirds in the first round of the WIAA Division 2 playoffs. The tenth-seeded Colby-Abby squad will travel to take on the sixth-seeded Thunderbirds on Thursday, May 18. Lakeland will be coming into the contest with a 7-11 record this season, though many of those losses have come in close games and against other Division 2 competition. The game is to start at 5:00 p.m.