Softball team goes 1-4 for week; face St. Ignace, SSM in conference games
by Richard Lamb– Advance Editor
With a 6-0 start to begin the season, the Rogers City softball team suffered through a 1-4 week with tough losses to Cheboygan, Petoskey and Posen. Tuesday in Cheboygan, a depleted varsity roster took on the Chiefs for two games. With six students gone on the Close Up Washington trip, the Hurons lost 12-2 and 11-10.
IN THE first game, Cheboygan scored eight runs in the first and four in the second while the Hurons managed just four hits in the game. Tiffiny Krueger went four innings, surrendering 12 runs on 10 hits and three walks. She struck out one batter. Chelsie Brege had a double, Mary Smuda had a triple and Katie Tulgestke, called up from the JV for the Close Up week, had an RBI single.
Sammie Brege, also up from the JV, worked the mound in the second game, going five innings, allowing 10 hits and a walk. ?She mixed up her pitches well and (senior catcher) Dana (Fairbanks) did a nice job catching her,? said Huron coach Karl Grambau. Fairbanks blasted a three-run homer in the six-run third inning to give the Hurons a brief 8-2 lead. Cheboygan countered with six of its own in the bottom of the frame. The Chiefs broke a 10-10 tie with a walk-off homer in the bottom of the sixth inning. Brege had two RBI while Laura Konieczny, Jenny Fleming, and Smuda each had two hits.
THE HURONS? home tournament started well but ended poorly for the home team. They beat Oscoda in the first game, 8-2, behind the pitching of Chelsey Plume and Krueger. They combined to allow just four hits and two walks while striking out seven. Fairbanks had three hits while Krueger and Jacqui Gordon had two hits each. Posen rallied for five runs in the top of the seventh to notch a 7-4 win in the championship of the State Farm Insurance Invitational Saturday at Gilpin Field. A bases-loaded double by Megan Pieczynski was the key hit of the inning as Elly Plath suffered the loss. She pitched seven innings, allowing nine hits and two walks while striking out one. Konieczny blasted a long home run to tie the game at 2-2 in the third, and then the Hurons led 4-2 going int
THE HURONS lost a tough one last Thursday to Petoskey, 10-9. Petoskey scored eight runs in the top of the seventh inning, all of the runs coming with two out in the inning. Leading hitters for the Hurons were Brege, Konieczny, and Cercone with two hits each. Plath took the loss, allowing eight hits. while striking out four. Rogers City now has a busy schedule lined up with a doubleheader scheduled for today at St. Ignace, a tournament set for Saturday in Oscoda, then another Straits Area Conference doubleheader with Sault Ste. Marie set for Monday.
?We are just going to continue to do the little things better,? said coach Grambau. ?We have some tough games coming up ahead, and we will try to get better each week.?