The W.F. West softball team took advantage of seven Black Hills’ errors on Monday, topping the Wolves 12-2 in five innings.
It was the Wolves (2-2, 0-2 2A EvCo) who got on the board first, as Kailey Miller hit a two-run home run in the opening frame.
The Bearcats (5-1, 2-1 2A EvCo) responded immediately in the bottom half, as Lena Fragner hit a leadoff solo home run and Avalon Myers hit a homer of her own two batters later to tie the game.
An RBI double from Monroe Dalrymple gave W.F. West the lead, and a fourth run scored on an error later in the inning.
The Bearcats took advantage of several errors, using the extra outs to score six more in the fourth, including a three-run double from Staysha Fluetsch, to push their lead to eight.
In the first, eight W.F. West batters got an at-bat, and in the fourth, all nine Bearcats went up to the plate.
“We were hitting the ball really well,” W.F. West coach Kevin Zylstra said. “We had some kids in the lower-third struggle, but we were able to turn the lineup over again.”
Back-to-back RBI singles from Fragner and Addison Froschauer run-rule walked off the Wolves in the bottom of the fifth.
Taylor Tobin got the win on the mound, allowing just four hits and two runs while striking out nine in five innings.
Zylstra called Tobin and Dalrymple “1A-1B” in the circle, saying that Tobin has “shown quite a bit” for a freshman.
“Despite giving up a home run early, she buckled down and made the pitches she had to make,” Zylstra said. “She had all her pitches working, which makes her that much more effective.”
Black Hills will head to Fort Borst Park to face Centralia on Wednesday, while the Bearcats are off until April 8, when they’ll head to Camas.
Zylstra said that with the way that they’re playing, he isn’t looking forward to having a break, but he expects that they’ll adjust and be ready to roll come April 8.
“The girls are playing well and everybody is starting to get their roles ironed out,” Zylstra said. “It is what it is. We just adjust.”
