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When you only get two hits and don't score any runs you probably aren't going to win.
That was a pretty good summary from the 6-0 Platteville softball win over Dodgeville Thursday in WIAA Division 2 first-round play.
The Dodgers got a leadoff hit from shortstop Brooke Lee in the fourth. She advanced to second on a passed ball and they had runners on first and second with two outs, but Platteville hurler Megan Schlueter coached a fly out by Kristal McVay to stop their best scoring threat.
Kara Crowley also singled to open the sixth and got to second on a passed ball, but two pop outs and a ground out ended that threat.
From there, the Dodgers were set down in order by Schlueter each frame.
She struck out nine, including the final batter of the game. She walked just one.
Dodger hurler Kelsey Prochaska gave up a double and two singles to open the game with each player scoring.
Platteville plated a run in the third when Sadie holmes opened with a triple and came home on Schlueter's single with two outs.
They scored twice in the fifth after a walk to Madison Moon, another triple by Holmes and a single by Sierra Brecke.
prochaska struck out three, walked one and gave up six runs on nine hits.
Holmes was 3x3 with three runs scored to pace the Lady Hillmen.
"Everything else aside, if you don't score you can't win," said dodger coach Gene Van Dyck. "So whether they got 6 runs or 1 run, we lose. For the most part their pitcher threw as hard and probably harder than anyone that we've faced this year. So the 9 strike outs wasn't out of line but the disturbing part was that over 1/2 were looking. I don't have any explanation for that. We hit the ball hard a few time but when we did they made good plays to keep us off of the bases. I'm not sure what happened as we scored 5 runs off of hers earlier in the year and 2 weeks ago we scored 4 runs off of her in less than 4 innings and they replaced her. But it was sure a different story this game."
He added, "Kelsey threw fairly decent but our infield had a poor game. There were 3 or 4 plays that we should have made and didn't and they went for hits. Also they hurt us with the bunt. Two bunts were really good and would be hits regardless but 2 should have been sacrifices but we just didn't react in time and they also went for hits. They only hit 4 or hard balls that went out of the infield but they found the gaps resulting in 3 triples and twice they were lead off batters. When you start an inning with runners on third, you're in real trouble. Their final 2 runs came on a lead-off walk followed by a triple. When you put it all together, things not only went their way but they outplayed us pitching, batting and fielding. Regardless after starting the year 1 & 5 we won 9 of our last 12 games including beating 2 teams that had beaten us earlier in the year. We improved a lot over the year and played good ball for the last 2/3 of the year."
Van Dyck announced that shortstop Brook Lee was named 1st team All-Conference while outfielder Kristal McVay, pitcher Kelsey Prochaska and third baseman Karly Ross were named to the second team.