After coming up an agonizing run short in its delayed season opener Thursday, the Boone Central/Newman Grove softball team captured its first victory of the 2014 season Saturday morning in the Boone Central Invite at the Albion Sports Complex.
BC/NG began the tournament by outslugging Pierce 15-11 before dropping decisions to Madison/Humphrey/LHF and Polk County in subsequent games.
The win over Pierce was a topsy-turvy affair throughout.
The Cardinals, as the visiting team in the game, grabbed a 4-0 lead in the top of the first inning, keyed by Brianna Brugman’s two-run double.
Pierce rallied to tie the score in the fourth and BC/NG came out on top of a 10-9 count after the teams combined for nine runs in the fifth. Pierce bounced back on top 12-10 in the sixth, but BC/NG took final control with five in the top of the seventh.
After plating 11 runs in their season-opener Thursday and another 15 in Saturday morning’s first game, the Cardinal bats went silent for the remainder of the tournament.
Madison/Humphrey/LHF blanked Boone Central/Newman Grove 11-0 in the second game of the day, limiting the Cards to just three hits. BC/NG, meanwhile, committed five errors again, helping the Dragons put together three-run innings in the first, third and fifth.
Boone Central/Newman Grove got solid pitching and tightened its defense in its final contest of the day, but dropped a 4-0 decision to Polk County as the offense continued to struggle.
Polk tallied a quick run in the first and added a pair in the fourth to establish a lead it wouldn’t relinquish. Slammers’ pitching held BC/NG to just five hits.
Further details in Print & Online editions of Albion News
