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A rough day for Alcona

LINCOLN-Mistakes caught up with the Alcona softball team at all the wrong times on Tuesday.

One mistake-filled inning cost the Tigers in the first game of a doubleheader against Standish and a lack of hitting and some more miscues doomed them in the nightcap as the Panthers won 5-1 and 14-0 (five innings).

Four runs in the top of the second inning of the opener spelled the difference between a win and a loss for Alcona. Of the four runs Standish scored, three came on wild pitches and the other came on an error.

Standish was held in check the rest of the game, but it was enough to propel the Panthers to a win. Alcona scored a run in the bottom of the second when Abbie Lobaugh scored on an error to make it 4-1, but Alcona went down quietly in the opener and was limited to just two hits.

“Our pitchers I thought pitched very well both games. Branda Bleshinski and Shonna Schmidt, they both threw with good location on their pitches and were able to work around some of the good hitters in Alcona’s lineup,” Standish coach Rich Sullivan said.

The Panthers added a run in the sixth inning when Lexi Sancha singled to score Schmidt.

Alissa Terpstra took the loss for Alcona, allowing five runs on nine hits with five strikeouts and three walks. Bleshinski went the distance for the Panthers, allowing a run on two hits with 10 strikeouts and a walk.

Abby LeClair had three hits for the Panthers and scored a run and Haley Hutchinson had two hits and scored a run. Brittany Decker and Hailee Gordy each had a hit for Alcona.

The Tigers’ struggles at the plate continued into the second game as Schmidt threw a one-hit shutout to lead the Panthers to a win. She struck out seven and walked one.

Alcona had just two base runners for the game and a single from Gordy in the third inning proved to be its only hit.

Offensively, the Panthers didn’t take long to get going as they scored three runs in the first inning after an RBI single from LeClair, an RBI groundout by Bleshinski and a fielder’s choice RBI by Richelle Campbell.

A wild pitch and a passed ball led to two more Standish runs in the third inning and the Panthers added three more runs in the fourth inning after another passed ball and a two-run single from Campbell.

Already ahead 8-0 after four innings, Standish broke the game open further with six runs in the fifth inning. The Panthers sent 10 batters to the plate and scored most of their runs with one out. After Schmidt singled with one out, Hutchinson walked and Sanch followed with a two-run double. Kelsie Sangslond followed with an RBI triple and during the next at-bat, two more runs scored on a wild pitch.

“We started squaring the ball up better and getting on to things,” Sullivan said. “At the end of game one, we started stringing some more hits together and I thought that was the key to getting things moving around.”

Sangslond had three hits, an RBI and scored four runs for the Panthers; Campbell had two hits, two RBI and scored three times; Sanch had two hits, two RBI and scored twice and LeClair had two hits and two RBI.

Terpstra started the nightcap for Alcona, but ran into trouble in third inning and was relieved by Maddie Lane with two on and no outs.

James Andersen can be reached via email at sports@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5694. Follow James on Twitter @ja_alpenanews.

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