BENTON — Players, fans, and officials from four area teams braved chilly winds, pouring rain, and tons of mud to watch some early-season softball this past weekend. The Benton Rangerettes were a part of this round robin style tournament along with the Trico Pioneers, Tuscola Warriors, and Zeigler-Royalton-Christopher (ZRC) Tornadoes.
The Rangerettes came out of the series 1-2 after suffering defeats from Trico and Tuscola, and winning the final game against ZRC. This tournament moves Benton's overall record to 2-3 in their first week of play.
"On the first game against Trico, we lost 2-1, and we were just one hit away. I think we could have come back and won that. We always seem to be one hit short, but today against ZRC our defense was really good. We caught some girls stealing, got them in a rundown, and executed well," Benton coach Sarah Stowers said after the tournament.
Benton played their first game of the series Friday night against Tuscola, and suffered a decisive 9-1 loss which saw two of the Warriors, Morgan Day and Abbey Walsh, knock the ball out of the park. Tuscola had 12 hits, doubling Benton's total number of six in that game. Due to the rain on Friday night, many games were delayed the following Saturday, and conditions were cold and muddy for Saturday's tournament games.
On Saturday, Benton lined up against Trico, who beat Tuscola earlier in the morning, and lost a 2-1 battle in which both teams had five hits. The Rangerettes came within one hit of tying the game as they led off their final inning with two hits by Ally Gischer and Lacey Jerkins, respectively. Gischer would later come into score off a sac fly from Aubrey Hunter. Lindsey Seidel battled gamely, but made the final out of the game in the bottom of the seventh inning which gave the Pioneers the win to move their tournament record to 2-0.
ZRC came into the final game on Saturday just having lost a tough game to Tuscola 5-1, which gave the Warriors a 2-1 record in the weekend tourney. Then the Rangerettes came together and fixed some holes in their game to beat the Tornadoes 5-0. Both Benton and ZRC had five hits in the game. Jerkins went two for three for Benton including a double; while Gischer, Ebriessa Casey and Cristen Shaw both contributed one hit each.
Benton applied the pressure on the basepaths in the win against ZRC with multiple stolen bases. The Tornadoes attempted to do likewise but Shaw, Benton's catcher, made them pay for it time and time again, throwing out multiple baserunners in the game. Talking about the importance of Shaw, Stowers said, "She's really worked on that. She chose not to play basketball this winter. She's really worked on her catching, and getting her legs in shape, and it's really paid off for her behind the plate."
Taylor Mosley was the starting pitcher for Benton in all of the weekend’s game. In the final game against ZRC she pitched a shutout, and also fanned five batters, including three strikeouts in the fourth inning. She completed the entire game, throwing the final out to first even after taking a line drive in the ankle/foot early in the last inning.
For ZRC, Megan Wilson and Savannah Sherman each had their turn on the mound to face a tough Benton offense, which struck out only once in the game. After the game ZRC coach Brooke Vercellino said that she was pleased with how her team played defensively, but added that they needed to put in some more work behind the plate, as they combined for only one run in their two games this weekend.
Stowers said she was happy with how her team battled all weekend long, noting that they made progressive improvements in each game, and never stopped fighting, even in the big loss against Tuscola on Friday.
"What I like about our team is that they're just good overall kids. They work hard, and they get along with each other, and support one another. That shows on and off the field. We're competitive, and we have a very talented group. Hopefully we can just kind of settle into a groove and continue to roll on,” concluded Stowers.
