Sports

DCB drops six games on road trip

By Tyler Ohmann

04/09/2013

The Dakota College at Bottineau softball team got in plenty of playing time in the past week as they played six games against local and conference opponents.

The Ladyjacks kicked off play with a pair of losses to Minot State JV last Thursday in Minot. The road trip continued with four games in Glendive, Mont. against Dawson Community College (DCC).

Minot State JV doubleheader

The Ladyjacks played a doubleheader with the Minot State JV squad last Thursday in Minot. The two teams squared off in the pair of makeup games on the turf at Herb Parker Stadium.

Game one went well for both teams as they combined for 20 hits, but it was the Beavers who gained the victory with a 12-4 win in five innings.
Former Ladyjack Keysha Jansen earned the win on the mound for Minot State JV, while Bethany Colman took the loss for DCB.

Despite the loss, Johnson thought the Ladyjacks played pretty strongly in the contest.

“I thought we did a number of good things in this game,” Johnson stated. “We had a nice pitching effort from Bethany Colman.  She only allowed four earned runs and really deserved better than the final score indicated.  We did hit the ball pretty well and gave ourselves plenty of scoring opportunities.”

However, the Ladyjacks did lose, and a big part of that had to do with stranding runners on base. DCB left seven runners on base in the loss.

“On the negative side, we left far too many runs on base and we committed too many errors,” Johnson stated.

The Ladyjacks had six errors in the game.
Jess Howard, Nichole Peters and Dariann Freer had strong nights, each accruing two hits in the contest. Freer also added two runs batted in (RBI) and scored a run.

Game two went even better for the Beavers. Minot State JV jumped on Ladyjacks pitcher Jess Audette for eight runs in the bottom of the first inning and never looked back. The Beavers added a pair in the second, eight more in the third and another run in the fourth to dispatch DCB 19-2.

The Ladyjacks scored a run in the first and one in the fourth on three hits.

“Unfortunately this one was over early,” Johnson stated. “They really came out hitting the ball and finding the holes. We did not have any errors but failed to make plays that we need to make. We also had trouble finding the strike zone.”

Another thing that lacked in the second game were the bats.

“Our bats were pretty silent and we certainly should learn from this game that we need to be more aggressive at the plate,” Johnson stated.

Despite the loss, Johnson said that there were a few positives to take away from the game.

“On the positive side we had a nice inning of pitching from Danielle Gibson in the fourth,” Johnson stated. “She gave up a couple of lead off hits but then settled down retiring the last three while striking out two batters.”

Notching the three hits for DCB in the loss were Colman, Gibson and Freer. Colman’s hit was a double that earned her an RBI as well.

Dawson Community College four pack

Last Saturday the Ladyjacks kicked off a pair of road doubleheaders in Montana with DCC.
Saturday’s doubleheader didn’t go well for the Ladyjacks as the Buccaneers jumped out to early leads and won games 13-0 and 22-0.

In game one the Ladyjacks smacked five hits, and Howard had three of them going 3-for-3 with a double. The other hits came from Sherry Chan and Amber Gabel.

In game two the Buccaneers piled the runs on even thicker as the Ladyjacks were again held scoreless in a 25-0 loss.

The game began poorly from the get go for the Ladyjacks as Colman, who was on the mound, pulled her groin, which caused her to sit out for the rest of the weekend.

After that the Ladyjacks were held to only four hits. One came on a triple by Jessica Carson, while Colman, Gibson and Gabel each had singles.

“We were certainly over matched by Dawson,” assistant coach Mike Getzlaff stated. “We didn’t hit the ball as well as we are capable of doing, but we have to give their pitchers some credit.”

Things went a little better defensively for the Ladyjacks on Sunday as they held the Bucaneers to under 10 runs in both games.

However, the games were still losses as the Ladyjacks were once again stymied offensively.
In game one the Ladyjacks scraped past two hits in an 8-0 loss. They improved from the eight error day on Saturday to commit only one in the loss.
Howard and Freer had DCB’s hits.

In game two it was much the same as Peters had the only hit for the Ladyjacks in another 8-0 loss.

“We cut down on our fielding mistakes on the second day, which made the games more competitive,” Getzlaff stated.

The Ladyjacks dropped to 1-15 with the six losses on the week.

Next on the schedule for DCB is five games with North Dakota State College of Science on Saturday and Sunday in Wahpeton.