April 26, 2012 at 11:45 a.m.
Dodgers lose tight one to Hornets
Richland Center posted a solo run in the first on a Rochelle Goplin double and an error. They got two in the third on another Goplin double that drove in a run with her scoring on a squeeze bunt.
Goplin scored another run in the fifth after lbeing safe on a sacrifice bunt, a groundout and a wild pitch.
Simpson doubled in the seventh and came home on Knothe's single for their final tally.
Two Dodger runs came in the fifth on back to back doubles by Courtney Reukauf and Haley Jones and a single by Brooke Lee.
Their final tally came in gthe seventh as Samantha Crowley singled and scored after Lee was safe on a fielders choice and Courtney Cushman was safe on an outfield error.
Dodger hard luck pitcher Sam Arnold struck out seven and walked two while Goplin fanned four and walked one for the Hornets.
Only three of the runs were earned off of Arnold whiile two were earned off of Goplin.
"After a couple of tough outings in a row against Lancaster and Potosi, we pretty well got our act back together," said Dodger coach Gene Van Dyck. Richland Center had only one loss coming into the game so it gave the impression that they might have their way with us but we played perhaps our best game of the year at least physically. In fact, we had the tying runs on second and third when the game ended. We outhit them 9 to 7 and struck out only 5 times compared to their 7. We actually lost the game on mental errors both on offense as well as on defense. We had two bad base running mistakes that took us out of potentially big innings and we had a couple of fielder choice mistakes that don't show up as errors but along with the two physical errors but led to three of Center's 5 runs.
"Sam Arnold probably threw her best game of the year. Her fastball was at times overpowering and occasionally was even located well. So very few ball were hit hard. She basically located her change-up down in the zone all game. They really shouldn't have gotten 5 runs. However, between Sam and catcher Courtney Cushman there are way too many base runners being advanced by passed balls or pitches in the dirt without the opponent having to give up an out to advance the runners. Also, there are too many successful steal attempts. However, first year catcher Courtney is starting to get rid of the ball quicker and with better velocity. It would appear that before too long before we can put an end to most of the stealing. Catching is a really difficult position with a long learning curve.
"Defensively we made most all of the standard plays but we're still getting too slow of jump on the ball to make the harder plays but it appears that we may be improving on this but only time will tell.
"On offense we had seven different players with hits but only our two seniors Carissa Tolzman and Megan Dalsing had multiple hit games and while we only struck out five times too many of us didn't not hit the ball hard enough with less than two strikes. We're taking too many two strike swings with less than two strikes and just putting the ball in play. This is a mental challenge that hopefully will clear itself up over the next few games but it is expected with such an inexperienced group of players."
