STERLING, Colo. – The Northeastern Junior College Plainswomen downed the North Platte Community College softball team twice Wednesday by the scores of 11-3 and 14-6.
“Today was a great day for softball, we had great weather and we never stopped fighting,” said North Platte coach Janelle Higgins. “We chalk today up to a tough learning experience but we would rather have these learning moments now and not at the end of April.”
The Knights were up 3-1 in the first game heading to the fifth inning and were out-scored 10-0 in the final two innings. North Platte scored a pair of first-inning runs in the second game but gave up at least three runs in all four defensive innings.
“We are a very competitive team and do not like losing but we always learn more from these tough losses than we do the wins — but we would much rather win.”
North Platte falls to 8-12 on the year and will return home Thursday for a makeup doubleheader with Lamar Community College that was postponed March 7. Games start at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.
Game 1 – Northeastern JC 11, North Platte CC 3: Willow Chitty (North Platte led off the game with a single went to third on a one-out double from Mikayla Gibson (West Valley, Utah) and scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Hallei Morales (North Platte) to give the Knights a 1-0 lead.
After NJC tied the game in the bottom of the first, North Platte took a 3-1 lead in the third on a Plainswomen error and a two-run home run from Kayleigh Bucio (Rialto, Calif.).
“We hit the ball well from one to nine in the order, but our defense was very up and down and never leveled out,” Higgins said.
The Knights gave up six unearned runs in the game, committed five errors including three in the final 1.2 innings, walked five hitters and hit a batter in the fifth and sixth innings.
NPCC had seven hits in the game including two by Gibson.
Ashylnn Krueger (Littleton, Colo.) pitched 4.1 innings, Emily Marsden (Papillion) the final 1.1. They allowed nine NJC hits, and five earned runs while walking six.
Game 2 – Northeastern JC 14, North Platte CC 6:
North Platte scored two runs in the first, third and fourth innings but couldn’t keep the Plainswomen off the board as NJC scored five in the first, and three each in the second, third and fourth innings.
The Knights started the games with consecutive singles from Willow Chitty, Kayleigh Bucio, and Mikayla Gibson to make it 1-0. An Emily Marsden sacrifice bunt drove home Gibson to make it 2-0.
Trailing 8-2 in the third inning with two outs, the Knights got back-to-back solo homeruns from Hallei Morales and Emily Marsden. Trailing 11-4 in the fourth, Erika McClung (Victoria British Columbia) delivered a two out single and Chitty followed with a two-run homer for the final Knight runs in the game.
“We started out strong scoring first but then dug ourselves into too deep to climb out in both games,” Higgins said.
North Platte had eight hits in the game with two each from Chitty and Bucio.
A trio of pitchers — Hailey Wilkins (Tyler, Texas), Ashylnn Krueger and Marsden were tagged with 10 earned runs in four innings of work, walked five and allowed 10 hits.