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Dodgeville's softball team won one of three games last week, losing a SWC contest to Platteville 9-5 then dropping a 3-1 contest to Cuba City, but getting past Potosi 7-4 in tourney play Saturday.
Platteville's Megan Schlutter struck out 12 without a walk and was stingy on hits allowing seven and two runs in 5 2/3 innings of work.
Her relief, Sierra Brecke went 1/3, walked three and gave up three runs. Schluter had to come back in to end that inning then K.D. Hoyer shut the door working one frame with a strikeout, allowing two hits but no runs.
Hoyer also popped a two run homer in the second with Madisen Moon going 3x4 and Sadie Holmes 2x4.
Dodger Kelsey Prochaska went seven frames, striking out four with two walks. She gave up nine hits and five earned runs.
Karley Ross was 3x3 and Kristal McVay 2x4 with a double and four RBI.
Brooke Lee tripled with Prochaska, Allison Dougherty and Kara Crowley each getting singles.
"We played a fairly decent defensive game but we still have to get better as half of their runs were unearned," said Dodger coach Gene Van Dyck. "To be honest, the Platteville pitcher was a little more than we can handle at this time of the year. She had 12 Ks for her 6 innings of work with 6 in the first 2 innings. After that, we started to hit decent but not at the level we are going to need to hit to win games against better teams.
"On the plus side, we actually outhit them for the game but struck out too often with runners in scoring position. The last 3 runs that we scored were put on base by their relief pitcher but Kristal's double was off the starter who they brought back in. In the 7th, they brought in another reliever. She threw quite a bit slower than the starter and while we got 2 more hits, we were really off balance with the change of speed between the 2 pitchers and didn't score."
In the 3-1 Cuba City loss, Prochaska fanned three without a walk and gave up just one earned run on six hits. She also was 2x4 at the plate.
Lee, McVay, Ross, Samantha Crowley, Katie Johnson and Kara Crowley also had safeties.
Cuba's Emily Wiederholt fanned seven with two walks while spacing eight hits for the win.
Van Dyck commented: "This was a good ball game but again we gave up too many unearned runs. Defensively we played pretty well but a couple of key errors really cost us. The other factor that really played into their scoring is our catcher is on the band trip and all of the Cubans that reached first stole second. This really put us in a fix that cost us.
Kelsey threw her best ball of the year and continues to improve. And we again out-hit our opponent even though we ended up on the wrong end of the score.
Really though we had our worst hitting performance of the year. Given the pitching that we faced we struck out way too often with runners in scoring position or didn't hit the ball hard. We had a couple of base running blunders as well as they got some breaks where we were moving runners and it took their fielders right to where we would have had base hits if they would have been in their normal positions. That's just bad luck as opposed to bad base running.
Their centerfielder made a spectacular catch with 2 runners on base to keep us from scoring. So things just didn't go our way. Karley Ross had a really solid game at 3rd for us."
Prochaska fanned three and walked one while giving up two runs (one earned) on five hits in four innings against Potosi in a 7-4 win.
Nicole Jones went the final three, allowing two runs on four hits while striking out two and walking one.
Ross was 2x4 while Lee, Prochaska, Samantha Crowley, Johnson, Kara Crowley and Ashley Chitwood each had hits.
"The same as the first game, our hitting continued to be sub-par for us but was good enough to get us the win," Van Dyck pointed out. "Kelsey threw well but they were good hitters and actually for the first time this year, we were out-hit but we made several really good defensive plays and the new catcher Alison Dougherty pretty well put an end to the stealing and that really made a difference.
Brooke Lee had a really solid game at third as did Samantha Crowley at 2nd. Kara Crowley had a great catch in center field and also was involved in a relay play that turned a double into an out in a run down between third and second. Nicole Jones got her first varsity pitching experience and threw well. She did end up with 2 outs in the seventh walking a batter and then giving up a single and a double after getting 2 outs with no one on.
Both Karly Ross and Kelsey Prochaska continued to hit the ball well."