Millie Lange
Effingham Daily News
May 07, 2008 12:22 pm
—
It's tough when you have a young team, but it's tougher yet to go up against a senior-laden team that's celebrating Senior Night.
Effingham traveled to Teutopolis for softball competition Tuesday and although it took awhile for the Wooden Shoes to get warmed up, they came through with a 10-3 victory as seven seniors started the game.
"Overall the seniors played a nice game," said T-town Coach Rich Niebrugge. "Although we started out not hitting well, I thought we got the key hits when we needed them."
The Wooden Shoes held the lead throughout the game, but the Hearts remained close for four innings before the fifth did them in.
"We had four and a half real good innings," said EHS Coach Jerry Trigg. "We hung with them, but we had that bad inning. That's when youth and inexperience come out. They're a veteran team and they didn't get rattled."
Neither team scored in the first two innings. Effingham had two runners on in the first, but went up and down in order in the second. T-town had Courtney Heuerman draw a walk in the first and reach third, while Sammy Kroeger doubled in the second and reached third. Both runners were left stranded.
The Hearts again went up and down in order in the third. The Shoes got runners on again in the bottom of the inning and this time they came through. Kristin Runde and C. Heuerman drew back-to-back walks. Maria Dust followed with a single to right field scoring both runners.
Effingham tallied its first run in the fourth. Laren Brummer had a leadoff single, but ended up as a fielder's choice when Shelby Koenig hit a ball to third base after Jensin Koester had singled. Stacey Eskew singled to load the bases. Katie Silva drew a walk off Dust and a run scored. Dust then settled down and got the next two outs with a strikeout and a fly ball to end the threat. The Hearts had pulled within 2-1.
T-town struck again in the bottom of the fourth. With two outs, Sarah Wendt drew a walk and came home on a single by K. Runde and the Shoes led 3-1.
But once again EHS responded and pulled back within a run when Mallory Steffen led off the inning hitting a ball to right field that went to the fence. Steffen sped around the bases and scored.
But here came T-town. The bats were finally unleashed. Nicole Runde led off with a single and stole second. She came home on a double by S. Kroeger, her second of the game. With one out, Danielle Willenborg drew a walk. K. Runde followed with an inside-the-park home run to right field. When the dust had settled, T-town had tallied five runs for an 8-2 lead.
T-town tacked on two more runs for a 10-2 lead in the bottom of the sixth. Dust led off with a single and scored on a triple by N. Runde. Runde came home on a double by S. Kroeger.
Effingham scored its final run in the top of the seventh. Hayley Jamerson led off with a single. She ended up at third on a wild pitch and scored when Amber Walker drew a walk and stole second. The catcher's throw went into the outfield and Jamerson came home. T-town toughened up and got the next two batters to end the game.
"We left runners on base early in the game and we've got to get better at bringing them home," said Niebrugge. "This was Maria Dust's first pitching start since we played against Newton about three weeks ago. She had a sore muscle in her forearm. She still isn't 100 percent, but she's making progress.
"It was nice for our seniors to go out with a win. I can't say enough about Traci Walk, Kristin Runde, Nicole Runde, Maria Dust, Sammy Kroeger, Whitney Pruemer and Danielle Willenborg. They're just a super group of seniors."
The Shoes improve to 31-2 on the season and will finish out regular season play Thursday at Robinson. This group of seniors has put together 112 wins and only 23 losses in their four years playing for T-town.
Effingham drops to 8-16 on the season and will be back in action today in the opening game of the City Series against Effingham St. Anthony. Game time is 4:30 p.m. at Bulldog Field.
"I thought we played pretty well against a tough team," said Trigg. "Now we have to build on it for the rest of the week."
In the junior varsity game, Teutopolis captured an 8-3 victory.
Millie Lange can be reached at 217-347-7151 ext. 123 or millie.lange@effinghamdailynews.com.
At Teutopolis
EFFINGHAM
----------------ab---r---h---bi
Steffen ss------4---1---2---1
Walker p-------2---0---1---0
Brummer cf----4---0---0---0
Koester 1b-----3---1---2---0
Koenig c-------3---0---0---0
Eskew lf--------3---0---1---0
Silva rf---------2---0---0---1
Frey 3b---------3---0---0---0
Jamerson 2b---3---1---1---0
TOTALS-------27---3---7---1
TEUTOPOLIS
------------------ab---r---h---bi
K.Runde ss-------3---2---2---4
C.Heuerman c----2---1---1---0
Dust p-------------4---0---2---2
T.Heuerman cr---0---1---0---0
N.Runde 2b------4---2---2---1
S.Kroeger cf-----3---1---3---2
Pruemer lf-------3---0---0---0
Willenborg 1b----3---1---0---0
Walk rf-----------4---0---0---0
Wendt 3b--------2---2---0---0
TOTALS--------29--10--10--9
Effingham---000---110---1---------3
Teutopolis---002---152---x--------10
E — Koenig, B. Kroeger. LOB — Effingham 7, Teutopolis 8. 2B — S. Kroeger (3), 3B — N. Runde. HR — Steffen, K. Runde. SB — C. Heuerman (2), K. Runde (2), Wendt, Willenborg, N. Runde, Pruemer. S — Walker.
PITCHING SUMMARY
---------------IP--R--H--SO--BB
Effingham
Walker (L)---4---3---4---2---5
Brummer----2---7---6---4---3
Teutopolis
Dust (W)-----6---2---6---7---2
Williams-----1---0---2---0---1
WP — Walker, Brummer. U — D. Bloemer (HP), J. Bloemer (B). T — 1:53.
------------------------
Junior Varsity Game
Effingham---000---020---1--------3--4-5
Teutopolis---320---102---x--------8-10-3
Whitten and French; Hoelscher, Zerrusen and Ruholl
Effingham — Johnson, single; Workman, single; Ohnesorge, single; Gartner, double; Whitten, 1 RBI
Teutopolis — Heuerman, single; Zerrusen, single; Probst, 4 singles; Windell, single, double; Hoelscher, single; Ruholl, single
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