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By Brian Kalish

April 17, 2012

Stevens Point– For SPASH softball fans, there was good news and bad news as a result of the game played against the Wisconsin Rapids Red Raiders at Zenoff Park on Tuesday night.

The bad news?  SPASH’s string of three straight shutouts was halted by a formidable showing from Rapids’ offense.

The good news?  SPASH ran its current winning streak to 4 as they came from behind to defeat their rival from the south by the final score of 11-4, due in large part to offensive fireworks in the 6-run fifth inning highlighted by a Heather Woyak three-run home run.

As with most of their games this season, this contest was no cakewalk for SPASH.  Rapids came out of the gates strong against SPASH pitcher Angela Lange, loading the bases with only one out.  However, Lange induced a Makayla Lee ground out and  Emily Romanski fly out to end the inning without any damage.

SPASH’s offense, which has been notoriously slow-starting, pushed across two runs in the first.  Leadoff hitter Carly Lass continued her torrid hitting by belting a triple to start out the inning.  Lass, who went 3-4 in the game, later scored on a stolen base attempt to give SPASH a 1-0 lead.  Taylor Smola drove in the second run of the game on an RBI sacrifice fly.

Down 3-0 in the top of the fourth, Rapids came back with a vengeance. Lee, Romanski and Leena Hagen all singled to load the bases with no outs.  Unlike the first inning, Rapids would capitalize when Megan Melville laced a two RBI single to pull within one run at 2-3.

Rapids’ offense continued to flex its muscles in the top of the fifth when, with Mariah Richardson aboard after a walk, Shelby Steinke belted a home run to center field to give Rapids the lead.

With all of the momentum tilting decidedly toward the visitors’ dug out, SPASH’s offense found life in the bottom of the fifth, sparked by senior captain Parris Kurzewski’s gutty battle against Rapids’ pitcher Allison Brost.  Kurzewski saw twelve pitches in the at-bat and ultimately reached on a Hagen error.

“In that situation, I knew my team needed the momentum,” Kurzewski said.  ”So basically, I was trying to get the bat on the ball any way I could.”

Next, Shelby Fields singled, followed by a Lass single.  The game was tied when pinch runner Katelyn Shuda scored, followed by an Abby Rottier RBI, which gave SPASH a 5-4 lead.

The big blow came from Woyak, who smashed a home run to left field to plate three more runs.

By the time it was all said and done in the fifth, SPASH scored six runs on seven hits to take a 9-4 lead into the sixth.

“I’m confident in our bats,” said Rapids head coach Harry Babcock after the game.  ”I’m real confident in our bats.  Generally, our defense is a little better than we were tonight.  Against Everest last week, we played as good a defensive game as we can play.”

Said Woyak of SPASH’s big inning, “Being down is a hard thing for us.  So when we got up to bat that inning, we knew we had to step up.  Parris had that huge 12-pitch at bat, which really boosted everyone’s confidence.  When I got up to bat, I just listened to coach, who said to look for the first one because it would be coming down the middle… So I listened to him and (hit it).”

Lange, who gave up eight hits and struck out seven batters on the day, closed the door in the top of the seventh, sitting down Rapids’ batters in order to preserve the win for SPASH.

“SPASH vs. Rapids is a pretty big rivalry,” Babcock said.  ”Today our whole game plan was we can’t get the ball above the knees.  We’ve got to keep it on the knees and make them hit ground balls.  When we get it up, they’re going to smack it, and that’s what they did because they’re such a good-hitting team.”

Speaking of his team coming back after being down to a tough conference opponent, SPASH head coach Tom Drohner said, “I, honestly, didn’t like our mindset.  Nobody really understands the burden of having to carry 90 straight (conference) wins and 12 straight conference championships and seven state championships except for us… It’s not an easy task when everyone gives you their best game every time they play.

“If we go out and play the game– with the talent we have– we’re capable of doing a lot of good things… I’ll tell you what, we got it done when we needed to and I’m proud of those kids…”

Drohner said he was impressed with what he saw from Rapids.

“Every time we play Wisconsin Rapids it’s a rivalry game and I’m always leery of rivalry games,” Drohner said.  ”Harry does a great job with those kids and they hit the crud out of the ball today.  That’s as good of a hitting team as I’ve seen in a while.”

With the win, SPASH improves to 4-1, while Wisconsin Rapids falls to 3-2.

Offensive Highlights (stats are unofficial)

Rapids:

Melville 2-4, 2RBI
Steinke 2-4, HR, 2RBI
Romanski 2-3

SPASH:

Lass 3-4, 3B, RBI
Woyak 2-4, HR, 3RBI
Leopold 2-3, 2B
Hauser 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI
Fields 1-3, SB