GHV girls looking for another win

(Above) GHV’s starting pitcher, Maddie Graham, fires one over the plate against Osage.  -Reporter photo by Chris Barragy

The Garner-Hayfield-Ventura softball team stretched its losing record to seven straight games, as they dropped two more outings last week.

Osage 12, GHV 7

If the Cardinals could have started the Monday night game against Osage as they finished it, the outcome would have been a whole different story.

Both teams’ defense was on point to start the game, with neither team scoring until the fourth inning.  Osage got the game rolling, knocking in five runs in the fourth.  The Green Devils went on to score two more runs in the sixth and five runs in the top of the seventh for a 12-0 lead.

The Cards didn’t give up heading into the bottom of the seventh.  Maddie Graham, Jayden Hughes, Jillian Heitland, Megan Oetken, Trinity Smith and Kylie Hughes all drove in runs, but the final surge wasn’t enough as GHV fell, 12-7.

Graham was in the circle for GHV.  She pitched six innings, allowing seven hits, seven runs and striking out one.  Heitland threw one inning in relief.  She gave up four hits, five runs and struck out two.

Catcher Megan Oetken led the defense with three big plays, picking off three runners.

Hughes, Heitland and Sadie Oulman had two hits apiece.  Oetken led the team in RBIs when her double knocked in two runners.

“I talked to the girls about the take aways from this game.  We have to score early and often and they figured out they can score when their backs are against a wall instead of just settling with the outcome,” said Coach Kaitlin Murphy.

Central Springs 13, GHV 3

GHV took the game pitch-by-pitch when they faced a very talented Central Springs team on Wednesday, June 6.

“We talked about being focused for every pitch of the game and we wanted to be sure we were doing the little things correct and I can confidently say we did so,” said Coach Kaitlin Murphy.  “We had girls making great decisions with the ball, which is progress from a week ago.”

The Panthers came out strong and put up 10 runs in the first four innings.  The Cardinals finally got on the board in the bottom of the fourth inning.  Central Springs got three more runs in the fifth.  GHV scored two runs in the bottom of the fifth, but fell 13-3, to the high-powered Panthers.

The Cardinals struggled to contain Central Spring’s offense, which had a whopping 17 hits compared to GHVs five.

Maddie Graham suffered the loss on the mound. She allowed 17 hits and 13 runs over five innings.  She struck out one.

Jillian Heitland went two-for-three at the plate to lead the Cards.  Jayden Hughes, Megan Oetken, and Graham all had one hit apiece.

Jailyn Krein made the most of her time on the bases by picking up two steals.  Heitland also had one stolen base.

Heitand and Oetken recorded RBIs for the Cardinals.