Sports

Sioux show fight, reach new heights

By Matthew Semisch

06/03/2014

MINOT - It often takes sports teams years - decades if their fans are particularly unlucky - to become higly competitive.

The Westhope-Newburg-Bottineau softball team only needed three.

It wasn’t that long ago that the Sioux were struggling as much as it’s possible to. When the W-N-B co-op team first hit the softball diamonds in 2012, it lost every game in that inaugural season and finished with an 0-11 record.

The Sioux then lost 12 games the following season. That didn’t feel nearly as bad, though, as W-N-B also won six in 2013.

Fast-forward a bit more to June 2014. Now, the Sioux are certifiable forces in North Dakota high school softball.

They wanted to win the state championship. So, of course, did the other seven teams at last week’s NDHSAA Class B state tournament in Minot.

The Sioux didn’t reach their ultimate goal for the season. This was due to a 17-3 semifinal loss Friday to eventual state champion Kindred-Richland.

However, W-N-B bounced back the following afternoon to reach what for the Sioux constitute dizzying heights: A 14-8 record and a top-three finish in their classification.

SIOUX SPOIL SPOILERS’ DAY

As Thursday gave W-N-B its very first taste of state tournament softball, the Sioux hoped for reasonably smooth sailing in their quarterfinal game against Grafton.

Early on, however, two types of nature – Mother and human – had different ideas.

Thursday’s forecast for Minot called for unseasonal warmth with a high temperature in the mid-90s. That came, but so, too, did a steady 30 mile per hour northerly wind for the Sioux and Spoilers pitchers to throw into.

That gave W-N-B starting pitcher Sam Colman and Grafton hurler Megan Osowski the same problem, but the strong winds seemed to affect Colman and the Sioux defense most. That became especially evident when the Spoilers opened up a 6-0 lead in the top of the first inning.

Five base hits helped Grafton’s cause in that opening frame. So did a fielding error from the Sioux that led to a three-run inside-the-park home run from Grafton third baseman Karly Kennelly.

The Sioux then pulled a run back in the bottom of the second inning through first baseman Lauren Mach. Three more runs were pushed across in the bottom of the following frame, and it looked like the comeback was on.

Grafton answered right back, however, with two runs in the top of the fourth to go up 8-4.

Sadly for the Spoilers, that was as good as things got for them Thursday.

W-N-B’s bats had been heating up as the game rolled along, and six Sioux runs in the bottom of the fourth inning saw them take the lead for good. All nine members of their batting order stepped to the plate in that half-inning, and they found themselves ahead 9-8 after that six-hit frame.

Things got even better for the Sioux in the bottom of the fifth inning. Grafton’s offense was retired in order in the top of the frame before the Spoilers’ defense gave up another seven runs to make 13 unanswered for the Sioux.

A 14th arrived in the bottom of the sixth inning, thus invoking the 10-run mercy rule that ended the game.

W-N-B’s offense was led in part Thursday by second baseman Maddy Lodoen, who finished the game 3-for-4 at the dish with three runs batted in. Mach, who hit a two-run home run in the Sioux’s 13-0 Class B West Region final victory over Watford City a week before, went 3-for-4 against the Spoilers Thursday and pushed one run across.

Colman turned in her own solid batting performance against the Spoilers, finishing 3-for-5 with two RBIs.

“We pretty much just stayed focused,” Colman said about her team’s turnaround on the offensive side.  “You have to keep that mind motivation of ‘Yes, you can’ every time you step into the batter’s box.”

Defense wins games, though, and Colman proved herself to be even more important to her team from the pitcher’s circle by posting nine strikeouts.

A big part of her success Thursday, W-N-B head coach Layne Fluhrer said, involved her scrapping one of her pitches that elevates before crossing home plate. It wasn’t working heading into such strong winds, and when she stopped using it, less became more.

“I think she went away from her rise-ball a little bit,” Fluhrer said, “Because the wind had been carrying that down. Eventually, though, you saw she found what worked and stuck with it and was able to neutralize their offense and allow us to get back into the game.

“As for the team’s performance in general, this is our kids’ first real taste of a state tournament, so some butterflies are what you expect, but after they got their nerves out and settled down, they showed who they were, and that’s an offensive team that can get production from (batters) one through nine in the lineup.”

Great defensive play plus the Sioux’s bats becoming alive certainly made for a good way for W-N-B to close out its very first state softball tournament game. As Colman mentioned after the game, though, the Sioux couldn’t sit back and be satisfied with just the one win at South Hill.

“It’s amazing, and it’s more than words can express,” Colman said of the win over the Spoilers, “But we have two more games left until we reach our goal, and we hope to get there.”

VIKINGS REIGN OVER W-N-B

Unfortunately for the Sioux, their quest for a state championship ended the following afternoon with a 17-3 loss to Kindred-Richland.

The Vikings never trailed Friday, and its game with W-N-B was never especially close. K-R leapt out to a 6-0 lead in the top of the first inning and rarely gave the Sioux’s offense much with which to work.

Whereas W-N-B erased that big of a deficit that early Thursday against Grafton, the Sioux couldn’t make it happen again against the Vikings. W-N-B scored twice in the bottom of the first inning and once more in the bottom of the second, but that was all the Sioux would get.

When the Vikings went up to bat, the Sioux’s defense proved unable to cope. K-R scored in each of the game’s five innings, and six runs in the fourth inning and another four in the fifth put the teams’ Class B semifinal beyond any doubt.

The Sioux needed to score five runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to keep the game going. They couldn’t add to their tally, though, and the Vikings advanced to the state championship game.

Fluhrer suggested after the game that his team missed something Friday that had been in the Sioux’s possession the day before.
“Kindred got up on us early, just like Grafton had,” Fluhrer said, “But we didn’t have today what we had yesterday.“

The Vikings were one of the best teams from a strong Class B East Region field this year. Because of that, K-R was one of the favorites to do well at the state tournament, and Fluhrer felt the Vikings showed why on Friday.

“That’s a really good team, and they proved today why they’ve been one of the best teams in the state the past three or four years. We made too many errors today and didn’t help ourselves, but Kindred’s a great team and did really well.”

W-N-B’s loss dropped the Sioux into Saturday’s Class B third-place game against Enderlin-Maple Valley. E-MV lost 16-14 to Central Cass in Friday’s second semifinal.

Fluhrer understood his team’s disappointment at not advancing to the state title game. He also, however, was quick to point out how big of an accomplishment getting to a state semifinal was for the young co-op program.

“Our goal wasn’t to be the last western team in with a chance to win here, but I’m proud of what we’ve been able to do,” Fluhrer said.

“We came up a little bit short in terms of winning state, but as I told the girls after the game today, you know, look where you’re at. We’re a third-year program and were 0-10 our first year and 6-12 last year, and now we’ve gotten to a state semifinal game in our third, and that’s a big accomplishment considering where we came from.”

What happened the next day against E-MV, Fluhrer said, was a chance for the team’s seniors to go out in style.

“We’ve had all year long a 24-hour rule where we have 24 hours to either celebrate or get over a loss, and we’ve got just about that much time now to get over this and come back tomorrow and have our seniors go out in their final career game for Westhope-Newburg-Bottineau in the right way.”

RESILIENCE PAYS OFF

The Sioux had come out flat against K-R Friday. Few teams can afford to do that aganist the Vikings, and W-N-B got pounded for it.

That wasn’t a problem Saturday in the Class B third-place game. The Sioux faced another very tough test in E-MV, though, in what turned out to be an entertaining pitchers’ duel.

Colman, who had struggled along with the rest of her team Friday against K-R, was in inspired form Saturday. She struck out seven Falcons in the third-place game and helped to retire E-MV in order in six of the game’s seven innings.

For quite a while, though, W-N-B’s offense failed to capitalize. It wasn’t through any fault of their own, as E-MV senior pitcher Kaylee Johnson posted nine strikeouts in the final game of her high school career.

As inning after inning passed, it became increasingly tough to predict when the first run of the game would be scored.
It finally arrived in the bottom of the sixth inning.

The Sioux started the half-inning brightly. Junior third baseman Jacie Ceglowski led off with a single, which marked only the Sioux’s third base hit of the day.

Ceglowski then stole second before a Colman single pushed her to third.

Next up to bat was Mach, who had struck out in the first and fourth innings against E-MV and in the final inning Friday against Kindred-Richland. This time, though, Mach hit a sacrifice fly that allowed Ceglowski to score.

“Right before she went up to bat, I told her that great players make great plays in big moments,” Fluhrer said, “And that’s exactly what she did.

“Lauren’s a great player and that was a great moment for her and for all of us, and getting Jacie home was exactly what we needed at that point.”

The Falcons were later retired in the top of the seventh inning. Ceglowski capped the game with a diving catch beyond the third base line.

Fluhrer spoke after the game about his team’s ability to bounce back from the disappointing state semifinal loss.

“Our motto has been that it’s not a matter of how hard you can get but how hard you can get back up,” Fluhrer said, “And that’s exactly what they did. I don’t think there’s a better way to go out like these kids did, and the few ending their senior year.”

The win capped off the high school softball careers of three seniors: Ashlyn Huber, Sage Ballantyne and Karlee McCloud.
The talent that comes back, though, is excited for next year.

“This is a big confidence boost,” Mach said, “And we already know we want to come back to state next year and win the whole thing.”