Article by Luke Paider. Photo by the St. Cloud State Athletic Department.
The Winona State Warriors visited the Husky Dome on Saturday, March 22 to get St. Cloud’s NSIC schedule underway and the matchups didn’t disappoint.
The Huskies came into the weekend with a 21-7 record and the Warriors had a nearly identical 21-6 tally themselves. More than just the teams, the pitching matchups were highly anticipated as well.
St. Cloud State’s Macey Clark has earned impressive numbers so far this season with a 2.18 earned run average (ERA) and a 1.15 walks, hits per inning pitched (WHIP) versus Winona State’s Izzy Howe with a 1.72 ERA.
Despite the highly touted pitching matchup the warriors were able to get the jump on Clark in the top of the first, scoring twice in their opening frame. But once Clark got out of her first inning the duel was everything it was billed to be and more.
Both pitchers threw complete games and looked in complete control throughout. The Huskies would eventually find the scoreboard in the bottom of the fifth inning when Grace Dahmen recorded a triple and then reached home safely on a sacrifice fly by Grace Frechette.
The first four Huskies in the batting order, Reese Holzhueter, Brooke Holmes, Bethany Weiss, and Maggie Fitzgerald combined 0-12 in game one. Clark finishing with seven innings and pitched two earned runs five hits and six strikeouts.
It was Huskies bats that just couldn’t solve the puzzle of Izzy Howe. The Huskies dropped the first game in the double header 2-1.
The back half of the day had started Jayda Berg and Emma Eickhoff. Berg came in with a 2.44 ERA and Eickhoff with a 2.25 ERA, which gave plenty of reason to believe another pitchers duel could be incoming.
However, that was not the case; game two started eerily similar to game one for the Huskies. The Warriors started hot. In top of the first they put up two runs, while St. Cloud’s batters went three up, three down in the bottom of the inning. Winona added two more runs in the third inning.
Emma Eickhoff was replaced by Justyce Porter who came in for relief. Eickhoff ended up throwing 2.2 innings with four earned runs and seven hits. Porter would clean up the third inning with no more damage but gave up a solo home run in the top of the fourth putting the Huskies in a 5-0 hole.
Yet, this half inning was exactly when St. Cloud started turning the game around. Porter would find herself in a jam with loaded bases and one out with Indigo Fish at the plate. Fish, a .427 hitter would be the last person St. Cloud wanted to see in this position. Porter forced her to ground out and the Huskies got the force out at home just barely missing the double play. One ground out by Alyssa Woeful later and Porter kept the Huskies in it with a few huge at bats.
The Huskies bats responded quickly, starting with a lead off double by senior captain Maggie Fitzgerald. St. Cloud would hit for the cycle in the fourth inning. A triple by Grace Frechette scored in Fitzgerald. A single by Rainna Stangle scored in Frechette. To cap it off Morgan Honeycutt smashed her first career home run to make it a 5-4 ball game after four.
After the home run Howe would come out in relief for Berg. Howe could not stop the St. Cloud bats. In the bottom of the fifth after the Warriors pushed the lead back to two, Kaylee Collins mashed a double into left field that scored two runners and brought the Huskies all the way back from the 5-0 hole.
In the top of the sixth Porter put together her cleanest inning of the day and gave St. Cloud a chance to take the lead, still knotted up at six a piece.
Sydney Roe drew a lead off walk for the Huskies before being pinch run for Bree Beck. Beck advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Holzhueter. Then Howe delivered a four pitch walk to Bethany Weiss and was clearly gassed which drew back out Jada Berg. Maggie Fitzgerald was first to the plate after the pitching change and did not give Berg anytime to reset herself blasting a single into left field for the game winning RBI.
Huskies would complete the comeback in game two and win 7-6.
Clark would come back into the game for the seventh inning to record the save and give herself a measure of revenge for the loss in the opening contest.
KVSC play-by-play Joey Hudson said the Huskies “were just so much more timely” in the second game.
Being timely at bats and stringing hits together were huge factors for the Huskies and was something Brooke Holmes pushed coming into the weekend.
The Huskies needed “professional at bats,” Holmes said.
St. Cloud showed off what they can do to neutralize great pitchers. In the second game they showed cased how to dictate the at bats from the plate and will look to do more of the same when they return to action on Wednesday, March 26. They will return to the Husky Dome vs. Minnesota Crookston.
Recent Comments