North Platte – The North Platte Community College softball team (2-11) dropped a pair of games Monday afternoon to the Western Nebraska Community College (25-7) in North Platte. The Knights were defeated in five innings 6-17 and in six innings 9-1 in the second game of the double header.

In the first game of the day Shannon Lieber took the loss on the mound, giving up four earned runs on 10 hits, one walk and one hit by pitch. Katharine Savolt came on in relief and gave up two earned runs on four hits, two walks and one strikeout.

Siarra Velasquez led the Knights at the plate as she went 2-2 with a walk and three stolen bases. Brooke Wakefield went 2-3 with three RBIs and one stolen base while Britlee Anderson went 2-3 with one RBI. Soliel Atenza went 1-2 with a sacrifice and Lieber went 1-3 with two RBIs.

In the second game of the day, Rylee Murphy was the losing pitcher as she gave up four hits, four earned runs and three walks to go along with one strikeout. Wakefield led the Knights at the plate going 2-3. Sydney Standage went 1-2 and Velasquez went 1-3. Anderson went 0-2 but had one sacrifice and one RBI.

“First innings are huge and we had a ugly first inning in today’s first game,” said head coach Janelle Higgins. “We battled back but the damage had already been done. Western Nebraska is a disciplined team both offensively and defensively and capitalized on our errors. We are growing day by day, we take a few strides forward each day and that’s what counts.”

The Knights then return to the road for two double-headers against Iowa Western Community College on March 22 and Southeast Community College on March 23 before returning home to face Williston State College on March 24 and 25.