The Dike-New Hartford softball team was limited on clutch hits and plagued by two out rallies against #4 (2A) Osage, as the Green Devils won 8-1 in a Class 2A Region 4 semifinal on Friday, as aired on 104.9 KLMJ.
After the start time was delayed by an hour due to rain. Osage, while maintaining a shutout, scored two in the first, one in the second and two in fourth all with two outs in the inning, to take a 5-0 advantage. The Green Devils added a run on a Wolverines error in the fifth inning to extend their lead to 6-0. DNH with three straight singles loaded the bases with two out in the sixth. Aubrey Mracek worked an RBI walk to push across a Wolverine run that made it a 6-1 deficit. The Wolverines were denied from causing further damage at the plate as an inning ending fielder choice followed for the next batter. The Green Devils plated two more runs in the sixth to go up 8-1, and closed out the win with a three up three down seventh. Head Coach Tianna Butteris.
“The state recognizes that, we all recognize it. Hats off to them, they’re good program,” says Butteris. “I feel like that score didn’t really reflect how competitive we still were in that game. Eight to one doesn’t look great, but we had runners in scoring position almost every single inning. We were still fighting the whole way through. We just didn’t get the clutch hits when we needed them, that was the difference. They had the clutch hits and the two out rallies. That’s just the difference between us only putting up one run and us putting up six or seven runs.”
Faith Gray in the circle for the Wolverines allowed five earned runs and had four strikeouts.
Dike-New Hartford concluded their season at 20-11.
