BEATRICE – The North Platte Community College softball team dropped a pair of games to Southeast Community College Sunday losing the first game 13-5 and the second game 9-3.
“We played hard and fought back both games, but just didn’t have the gas to get over the hill we created early,” said North Platte Community College coach Janelle Higgins.
In both games the Storm had at least seven runs before the end of the second inning.
“They got in our heads early and we couldn’t shake them. We had glimpses of playing our game, but we were not consistent today,” Higgins said.
The condition of the field was also a factor in the game according to the coach.
“We did better today fielding fly balls but the field was super soft today, so everything died quickly and we rushed our throws on easy grounders.” Higgins said.
Southeast improves to 8-6 on the year and 2-0 in conference.
North Platte falls to 8-16 on the year and continue a six-game road swing through the Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference with a pair of games Monday at Columbus against Central Community College at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. The next games are set for April 10 at McCook Community College at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m.
“We are very proud of our athletes for how they handled themselves today on the field,” Higgins said.
Game 1 – Southeast CC 13, North Platte CC 5: The Storm jumped on the Knights for four runs in the first inning and added six runs in the second.
North Platte cut the gap to 4-2 in the top of the second. Emily Marsden (Papillion) led off with a single and went to second on a sacrifice bunt from Erika McClung (Victoria British Columbia). With two out Marsden scored on a Southeast error and the Knights cut the margin to two runs on a Sienna Pfaff (Salem, Utah) RBI-single.
Southeast took a 10-2 lead in the second and stretched it to 11-2 in the third and 13-2 in the fourth before the Knights added three runs in the fifth. Pfaff, Kayleigh Bucio (Rialto, Calif.) and Mikayla Gibson (West Valley, Utah) singled to load the bases. Hallei Morales (North Platte) had a two-run single and a Marsden ground out provided the final North Platte run.
Marsden started the game in the pitching circle allowing nine runs on six hits in 1.1 innings. Hailey Wilkins (Tyler, Texas) went 2.2 innings and gave up four runs on five hits.
Gibson and Pfaff both had two hits each for the seven-hit North Platte offense.
“We had some solid hits but played most of the day hitting the ball right at them,” Higgins said.
Game 2 – Southeast CC 9, North Platte CC 3: It was another early big-run inning in the second game that North Platte was unable to recover from, giving up seven runs in the second inning.
Hallei Morales singled to lead off the North Platte second, went to second on an error and scored on a two-out Erika McClung single to give the Knights their only lead of the day.
After the Storm took a 7-1 lead in the second, North Platte did fight back to cut the lead to 7-3 in the top of the third. Willow Chitty (North Platte) was hit by a pitch to lead off the third, she stole second, went to third on a Kayleigh Bucio single and scored on a groundout off the bat of Mikayla Gibson. With two outs, Alea Binkley singled in Bucio, but that’s as close as the Knights got as Southeast added runs in the fifth and sixth to close out the game.
Sophomore pitcher Ashlynn Krueger (Littleton, Colo.) took the loss for North Platte she went six innings, allowed two earned runs on 11 hits.