Post Messenger Recorder -

On Tuesday, April 27th, the Belleville Wildcats softball team played their first non-conference game this season, at Monticello-New Glarus, who are playing their home games in Monticello. The Wildcats won, 12-7.

In their half of the first inning, the Wildcats plated three runs batting through their first seven batters. According to Coach Connie Wunschel, "Sophomore pitcher Kailey Prochaska helped out by striking out three of the four batters in the bottom of the first."

At the top of the second inning, with 2 outs, back-to-back straight hits culminated in 2 runs off senior Raina Nicholson's base hit. In the bottom of the third inning, Monticello's lead hitter walked. M-NG's Katelyn Eyler then connected with a long shot to right center for an RBI triple and scored on Alexa Siegenthaler's hit back to the pitcher for a fielder's choice. The Wildcats responded with a run in the fifth, but M-NG came back in their half of the fifth. With the score at 6-2, the first batter got on by error and two stolen bases put a M-NG player at 3rd. Back-to-back walks put runners on all bases for the Ponies, followed by an error and a passed ball to score two. Two more scores and then Belleville's Prochaska struck out the next batter.

"That put a little fire in our bellies as we scored three runs in the top of the 6th with lead-off batter McKenzie Stampfl getting a base hit and stealing 2nd. McKenzie Downing followed reaching on an error, and stole for runners at 2nd and 3rd. CC Grefsheim reached on an error and all three were able to score. In the top of 7th, we started off with Stampfl again who reached on an error, followed by Downing on an error. Stampfl scored on a ground out by Nicholson, CC walked then stole 2nd," said Coach Wunschel. "Scored a run on an error on Prochaska's hard hit and another run scored on Heidi Marty's base hit to left. Prochaska did good work on Monticello-New Glarus in both the 6th and 7th by striking out 3 of the 6 batters she faced and solid defense by the infield behind her."

Kailey Prochaska got her first varsity win going all 7 innings, walking 3, striking out 13 and giving up 4 hits. McKenzie Stampfl was 3x5, 4 runs scored, 3 stolen bases. McKenzie Downing was 1x4, reached base 4 of her 5 times, scored 4 runs and had 3 stolen bases. Prochaska was 2x4. Averi Boyum was 2x3. CC Grefsheim was 1x4, 2 RBI and 3 runs scored.

On Thursday, April 29th, the Wildcats traveled to Wisconsin Heights and lost in 5 innings, 15-1.

Prochaska took the loss, in all 5 innings. She walked 6, struck out 2 and only gave up 8 hits but the team's untimely mental errors did them in.

Photo courtesy of Julie Garrison

Monticello's Alexa Siegenthaler takes a swing at an incoming pitch.

"Heights scored 2 in the first inning. Both runners got on base by walks, followed by a double and fielder's choice to score. They went 1-2-3 in the 2nd inning. They scored 3 more in the 3rd with hits up the middle after 2 outs, putting the score at 5-0," explained Coach Wunschel. "Still looked good for our group. Then the 4th inning happened and it all fell apart...we committed 3 errors, 3 walks and gave up 5 hits that gave them control of the game pushing the score to 15-0. Belleville's highlight came in the top of the 5th when Claire Patrow reached on a fielder's choice. She then stole 2nd on a delayed steal (actually, she thought Karena Simmons had just gotten ball 4 and had started trotting to 2nd, when it was realized she was halfway to 2nd!). She slid into 2nd knocking the ball out of the shortstops glove to be safe. Mickey Stampfl then had a base hit to the right side to score Claire from 2nd. We had 3 hits coming from Mickey Stampfl, Raina Nicholson and Kailey Prochaska. We walked twice and only struck out 4 times, so we were hitting the ball pretty well, just right at them."

The Wildcats hosted Waterloo on May 4th. They will play at Cambridge on May 6th, host Lodi on May 8th and play at Marshall on May 11th.