Kouts, Morgan Township cruise to wins

Updated: May 23, 2011 10:22PM

WHITING — Big innings made the difference in the first round of the Class A Sectional 49 softball tournament, as Kouts and Morgan Township advanced past LaCrosse and Bowman Academy, respectively.

In the nightcap, Kouts rode the strength of an eight-run third inning to a 12-3 victory over the Tigers. Kelsey Blood and Breanna Seber each drove in a pair of runs with their hits—part of a rally that saw eight straight Kouts batters reach base and then score.

“Our team’s been struggling a bit, but they really came together this evening,” said Kouts head coach Tim McNeil. “We did a lot of hit-and-runs tonight; the girls did a great job of advancing runners. We got a lot of timely hits.”

Stephanie Evert, Taylor Guse and Quinn Fox scored the three runs for LaCrosse, who were unable to get back into the game after the Fillies’ third inning. Kouts’ starter Easton McNeill was a part of that, striking out five hitters in the last three innings to keep the game out of reach.

Kouts victory—their eleventh of the season—sets a school record for most wins in a single season.

Morgan Township cruised to an easy victory in the opening game of the doubleheader, defeating Bowman Academy 24-3.

The Cherokees scored 17 runs in the first two innings, using nine hits and seven walks to put the game away early. Katherine Bachert had a three-run homer as part of her five RBI performance.

After the game, Morgan head coach Larry Babcock said his team was going to need a solid practice on Tuesday to prepare for Wednesday’s second round of action.

“Facing those slower pitches, it may take your hitters a few innings to adjust in the next game. We’re going to have go back and crank our pitching machines up to 100 to get them ready for Wednesday,” he said.

Babcock said his team will need to get the ball down if they plan to extend their season past Wednesday.

“We’ve dropped five one-run games this year because we keep putting the ball in the air. We need to start hitting line drives,” he said. “We had a few errors today, too, and we’re going to need to eliminate those as well.”

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