May 22, 2014 at 2:28 p.m.
Dodgers top Belmont, Reedsburg
Nolan had only allowed harmless singles, one each to Brooke Lee (1st) and Kara and Samantha Crowley (3rd). But in the fifth, Lee reached on a fielders choice, Samantha Crowley singled and Kelsey Prochaska singled to drive in Lee. Courtney Cushman walked and Karley Ross singled to drive in both Crowley and Cushman. All of this came with two outs.
Belmont's lone tally came in the second on a single by Brianna Riechers with two out.
Prochaska went five innings on the mound striking out five without a walk and giving up one run on six hits.
Nicole Jones finished and gave up one hit without a walk or strikeout.
Lee and Samantha Crowley both were 2x4 with Prochaska, Ross, Katie Johnson and Kara Crowley had the other hits.
Nolan struck out nine, walked three and gave up two earned runs on eight hits for the Lady Braves.
Rand and Lee both had a pair of hits.
"This was typical of the hard fought games that we have with Belmont annually," said Dodger coach Gene Van Dyck. "They are always a well-coached and hardnosed team and you have to play good ball to have a chance of beating them. And that's how this game went. We played really solid defense with our first error free game of the year and managed to take the lead and grab the win with a big 3 run 5th. inning. Kelsey threw well and kept herself and us out of trouble not issuing a BB in the game. Brooke had 6 assists and a put-out at SS with several on tough plays and Hannah Sigg had a nice grab of a line drive to left. This was one of our better overall games of the year and we wouldn't have won doing any less. An area of needed improvement is putting the ball in play with runners in scoring position as we stranded 9 runners in 6 at bats and struck out 9 times."
Monday, at Reedsburg in another non-league contest, the Dodgers banged out 16 hits in a 7-3 win.
Lee doubled and was 3x5 with Samantha and Kara Crowley, along with Cushman, Allison Dougherty and Prochaska each collecting two hits. Ross, Johnson and Hannah Sigg each had one.
Prochaska struck out eight without a walk while scattering seven hits.
The game went nine innings as the Dodgers trailed 3-2 going into the seventh when they tied it as Prochaska drove in Lee.
They scored four unanswered runs in the ninth for the win - the big blow being a double by Cushman.
"If you look at the stats, this game should have ended earlier than it did," Van Dyck said. "However, as it played out I'm glad that it didn't. The top of the 9th. was just what we needed as our bats really came to life and I believe that will carry forward. We got 5 hits in the inning including a lead-off single by Allison Dougherty and then pinch hit singles by Taylor Colin that plated the go ahead run followed by a Hannah Sigg single that plated the eventual winning run. Brooke Lee hit a line-shot double to plate an insurance run and Courtney's blast off the top of the right field fence to drive in our final 2 runs. Courtney hit 2 balls off the right field fence . Still though you can't leave 16 runners stranded and score the runs that you ought to."
