This story is sponsored by: Trudeau Construction and The Tile Guys
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
WISCONSIN RAPIDS – The Marshfield softball team has five new starters and had only played outside on a regular softball diamond once this spring prior to Tuesday’s Wisconsin Valley Conference season opener at Wisconsin Rapids.
The inexperience, both on the field and in the lineup, showed for the Tigers in a 9-3 loss to Wisconsin Rapids.
Marshfield committed three errors, suffered a base-running blunder that halted a potential big inning and a two-out walk was followed by a missed foul pop-up and a grand slam home run by the Raiders’ Shelby Steinke that provided the dagger in the fifth inning.
“Compared to where we were when we played (March 31) against Tomah, we’ve come a long way,” Marshfield coach Mike Voss said. “We had a lot of mental mistakes. Tonight, for the most part, we played a lot better. We made those crucial mistakes here and there and that hurt us and allowed them to get a few more runs in those innings.”
Rapids struck first with two runs in the bottom of the second inning. Makayla Lee knocked in a run with a double and later scored on an error to give the Raiders a 2-0 lead.
Marshfield cut the lead in half in the fourth inning when Abbey Besler’s single scored Kristin Kniech, but a base-running error led to an out at the plate and halted a possible bigger inning.
The Raiders retaliated quickly with two more runs in the bottom of the frame. Emily Romanski had an RBI single and Stephanie Shannon walked with the bases loaded to put Rapids up 4-1.
Rhiannon Baierl and Sara Sturomski had back-to-back doubles in the fifth to plate another run for the Tigers before Rapids put the game away in the bottom of the inning.
Leena Hagen walked with two outs to lead the bases for the Raiders. Steinke hit a high foul ball down the left field line that no one for the Tigers could get to. Two pitches later she smoked a shot deep over the fence in left-center for a grand slam to give the Raiders an 8-2 lead.
Trailing 9-3, Marshfield tried rallying in the seventh. Becky Boehning had an RBI double to plate pinch-runner Jenny Krokstrom. Kelsey Kuhn relieved a tiring Erica Langholff on the mound for the Raiders and got the final two outs to finish off the victory.
“We hit the ball, we made some things happen and came up with some big hits,” Voss said. “We struck out three times tonight, against Tomah we didn’t strike out at all, so we’re putting the bat on the ball.”
Marshfield hosts Merrill on Thursday and the Marshfield Invitational on Saturday.
Raiders 9, Tigers 3
Marshfield 000 110 1 – 3 7 3
Wisconsin Rapids 020 241 x – 9 10 0
WP: Erica Langholff. LP: Rhiannon Baierl.
SO: E. Langholff 3, Kelsey Kuhn 0; Baierl 1. BB: E. Langholff 3, Kuhn 0; Baierl 2.
Top hitters: M, Taylor Hasz 2×3; Becky Boehning 2B, RBI; Baierl 2B; Sara Sturomski 2B, RBI; Abbey Besler RBI. WR, E. Langholff 2×4, 2 2B; Savanah Provost 2 runs; Makayla Lee 2×3, 2B, 2 runs, 2 RBIs; Emily Romanski 2 runs, RBI; Shelby Steinke HR, 4 RBIs.
Records: Marshfield 1-1, 0-1 Wisconsin Valley Conference; Wisconsin Rapids 3-0, 1-0 WVC.