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Wildcats beat Ogemaw, keep title hopes alive

The Alpena softball team kept up its winning ways on Tuesday, sweeping a crucial Big North Conference doubleheader against Ogemaw Heights, shutting out the Falcons in both games-3-0 and 12-0- to come away victorious.

Lauren Heath dominated on the mound, leading the Wildcats to a game one win. Heath pitched a complete game, striking out 16 batters, walking four and allowing just two hits, the first of which came in the sixth inning.

Alpena wasted little time taking an early lead, scoring two runs in the home half of the first inning. Jenna VanDusen led off with a single and later came around to score on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Jessica Marwede. The Wildcats took advantage of an Ogemaw error later in the inning as Marwede scored the second run of the inning.

Lizzy Kendziorski led off the bottom of the second with a single and scored on an RBI single by Jasmyn Schultz and it was more than enough runs as Heath was dialed in on the mound.

“Lauren threw fantastic, she hit her spots and was overpowering on the mound. She mixed in some other pitches throughout the outing and she did a great job,” Alpena coach Paul Marwede said.

The Wildcats once again shut out Ogemaw in game two, but were much better offensively, winning the nightcap by a final score of 12-0 in five innings.

Alpena opened the scoring in the bottom of the second inning as they batted around and took advantage of some more costly Falcon mistakes. Jordan Modrzynski reached on an error to start the inning, stole a base and scored on a perfect bunt single by Elise Leeck. The Wildcats went on to score three more in the inning and didn’t let up scoring four runs in each of the next two innings to coast to the game two victory and complete the conference sweep.

Offensively, Alpena was led by Mary Schimmel who went 2-for-4 with three RBI. VanDusen went 2-for-4 with two RBI and three runs scored. Modrzynski was 2-for-3 with three runs scored.

Heath started on the mound and pitched the first three innings before being relieved by Mykayla Price who finished the final two innings. Both Heath and Price combined for five strikeouts, allowed two hits and didn’t walk anyone or give up any runs.

“We scored just enough to win the first game and kind of opened it up in the second game which was nice to see,” Marwede said.

It was another two big victories for the Wildcats who improve to 7-1 in the conference and have their destiny in their hands. The only conference loss of the season came nearly a month ago when they split a doubleheader against Cadillac.

Alpena dropped the first game of the doubleheader to the Vikings and knew they were in a must-win situation early on. Since then, the Wildcats have gained a ton of momentum and will have just four games remaining in conference play in hopes of earning another Big North title.

“We have destiny in our own hand. If we win out we know we have a minimum of a tie for first place in the conference and this has been our goal all season. We left Cadillac knowing that we needed to win out in order to win another title and we need to take care of business in our final four conference games of the year,” Marwede said.

The Wildcats will look to keep their momentum and title hopes alive on Thursday as they host Traverse City Central.

Jonny Zawacki can be reached via email at jzawacki@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5690.

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