Sports

Sioux take one of three

By Matthew Semisch

04/28/2015

Westhope-Newburg-Bottineau’s (W-N-B) softball team fell from the ranks of the unbeaten last week, with both Stanley and Turtle Mountain Community (TMCHS) fitting the Sioux with losses.

W-N-B was 4-0 heading into a make-up game on Tuesday on the road at Stanley, and it was there that the Sioux picked up their first defeat of the season. The Sioux were an even match for their West Region rival, but the Bluejays came away with an 8-7 victory in eight innings.

The Sioux bounced back well on Friday, though, by defeating Ray 12-2 in six frames. W-N-B was dominant throughout, scoring in each inning of the Sioux’s first home game in Westhope in two years.

Senior outfielder Paige Vad had a particularly big day against the Jays, finishing 3-for-3 at the plate and driving four W-N-B runs across home plate.

W-N-B senior Sam Colman went the distance in the pitcher’s circle, striking out 10 Ray batters en route to the win.

The Sioux couldn’t keep the momentum rolling on Saturday, however, when TMCHS visited Westhope. W-N-B jumped out to a 4-0 lead through three innings, but the Bravettes scored three runs in the fourth, one in the fifth and another in the seventh to wipe out the hosts’ lead.

Despite seeing his W-N-B team lose two of three games last week, head coach Layne Fluhrer suggested that there are positives as well as lessons for his Sioux to take from the rough week.

“All year long it hasn’t been so much with us being undefeated as it is getting better every day, and we did get better in these games,” he said. 

“We got put into a lot of different situations this week that we’re going to be able to learn from, and we’re going to use it to try and prepare for what we have coming up and then tournament time and hopefully make a run there.”

W-N-B (5-2) hosted Des Lacs-Burlington today after press time. The Sioux will visit Wilton-Wing on Tuesday before facing Watford City in Stanley on Friday.