Sports

Ladyjacks season starts in Florida

By Tyler Ohmann

03/19/2013

The Dakota College at Bottineau Ladyjacks softball team opened up their season this past week with a trip to Florida.

It was a bit of a rough opener to the season for the Ladyjacks as they played in six games and lost by double-digits in all their games.

“We were out matched in every game by teams in higher divisions,” stated coach Mike Getzloff. “Some of the teams had been down for several days and had a number of games under their belt.”

Getzloff was coaching in the stead of head coach Wayne Johnson, who was still involved in the Ladyjacks basketball team’s postseason run.

In the Ladyjacks first game against Muscatine Community College out of Illinois things started out OK. Freshman Jess Audette pitched for DCB and gave up three runs in the first two innings.

However, Muscatine figured her out in the third inning and poured on eight runs.

The Ladyjacks were able to find the scoreboard in the bottom of the third as they scratched across two runs. Eventually Muscatine proved too much for DCB and went on to win in five innings 16-2.

The next DCB game against Burlington, N.J., ended in five innings as well as Burlington tallied 10 runs and the Ladyjacks were held to only one hit.

Freshman Bethany Colman took the loss on the mound, despite a strong pitching performance.
In their third game of the trip against Bethel, Minn., the Ladyjacks looked primed to play a different game as they opened the contest with six first-inning runs.

DCB trailed 12-8 heading into the top of the fifth inning. There Bethel exploded for 14 runs to take home a 25-8 win. Audette was again the pitcher of record for DCB. The Ladyjacks had a strong 15 hits in the loss.

“When playing against teams that threw pitchers like we will see in our region we hit the ball well,” Getzloff stated.

DCB suffered another tough loss in their next contest as Rock Valley, Ill. earned a 10-0 over DCB. The Ladyjacks again struggled at the plate, earning only two hits. Colman was the losing pitcher, but it was the fielding that gave up the runs as the Ladyjacks had eight errors in the contest.

Getzloff knows that cleaning up the defense is something DCB will have to do.

“We need a lot of work on defense to cut down on the number of errors,” Getzloff stated. “Although the teams scored a number of runs against us most of those were unearned.”

The next contest for the Ladyjacks was Mott Community College out of Michigan. In that contest DCB again had fielding problems committing eight more errors and allowing 18 runs on 21 hits in a five-inning 18-0 loss. DCB had only three hits in the loss.

Freshman Danielle Gibson suffered the loss in the contest.

The Ladyjacks offense came alive again in an 18-6 five-inning loss to St. Claire, Mich. in their final game of the week.

DCB notched 12 hits and scored a pair of runs in each of the second, third and fourth innings. However, St. Claire managed 10 runs in the third inning, which propelled them to the win.

Sophomore Amanda Schmidt was on the mound for DCB.

Getzloff believed that the pitchers did a good job, but the unearned runs really hurt them, which was caused in part because of out of position players due to injury.

“Our pitchers threw better than the scores indicated,” Getzloff stated. “Because of injuries we were forced to play players in positions they were unaccustomed to playing.”

Colman led the Ladyjacks during the trip with seven hits. Gibson, Jess Howard and Dariann Freer, all freshman, contributed five hits each.
DCB had four additional games scheduled, but were unable to play them due to illness and injuries.

“It was a learning experience from which we expect to grow,” Getzloff stated. “We believe that when we play against teams in our region we will be very competitive.”

The Ladyjacks are scheduled for a pair of games against Minot State JV on March 27 in Minot. They also have scheduled games inside in Rosemount, Minn., over Easter weekend.

Bottineau’s scheduled home opener is April 6 against Dawson Community College, but weather, as always in the spring, can be a factor in delays.