In wind and intermittent showers, the varsity girls took on visiting Waterville-Elysian-Morristown yesterday (Monday)
The Bucs were young, and the Clippers quickly got in front 4-0. As the game drew to a close, the Bucs posted a couple of runs and had the winning run at bat, but Delaney Thompson, who threw all seven innings, put an end to the insurrection, and the Clippers, with a 4-2 triumph, are now off to a 6-0 start.
“The weather was a little bit of a challenge,” said head coach Rich Kern. “The winds were picking up. We knew rain was coming in at 5:00. We were also missing two players and had to shuffle our lineup a bit.”
After Thompson fanned all three batters she faced in the top of the first, leading off the bottom of the same inning, she took the first pitch she saw (above) over the right field fence for her first career homer.
“She crushed it, and the wind helped,” Kern said. “We’ll take that.”
Going from long ball to small ball, Ava Hahn dropped down a bunt single. She stole second and scored when Kaitlyn Flowers slammed a hit into the centerfield fence.
The Clippers scored their other two runs in the second when Taylor Wolf got hit by a pitch and Cecelia Gair made it to second when the third baseman threw her grounder over the first baseman's head. Wolf made her way to third on the play and both scored on a Thompson single.
The Bucs posted their two runs in the sixth. Thompson struck out the first batter but the second walked. The third hitter struck out too, but the fourth walked. A single scored the first run, and the other run scored on when an infield throw to first was off target.
“We were close to calling it after five innings,” Kern said. “But then the sun came out, and sure enough they started rallying. But Delaney finished strong, and we had a few good plays.”
But with another strikeout, Thompson stranded the two runners and got out of the inning.
The Clippers had runners in scoring position on three occasions but couldn’t bring them in.
In the fourth, Kiya Sohn reached second when the first baseman dropped the putout throw, but the next two batters whiffed before a groundout ended the inning.
With two outs, Flowers singled in the fifth. Taylor McCabe took first on an infield error, and Lacey McCabe got hit by a pitch, but the frame ended on a strikeout looking with all three runners stranded.
Wolf led off the sixth with a walk, advanced on an Ava Kluntz grounder and got to third when Thompson hit into an infield error, but a strikeout and a pop fly ended the threat.
The Clippers struck out eight times, walked once, got beaned twice and totaled eight hits. Flowers hit a double and a single. Thompson hit a homer and a single. Hahn and Taylor McCabe each hit a single. WEM suffered five errors, two more than the Clippers.
Thompson allowed two hits and one earned run. She struck out 18 and walked four.
“We’re riding on Delaney’s pitching and staying healthy,” Kern said.
The Clippers host JWP tonight. The Bulldogs lost big to MCW, lost to Maple River, beat Blooming Prairie, lost big to St. Clair/Loyola, lost 7-5 to WEM and beat Nicollet 5-1.
