SNOWY SOFTBALL: Norse Sweep Milwaukee Tech
Click the thumbnails to see photos and videos taken by Brad Landis, and to hear post-game comments from Karlie Patron.
ESCANABA---The Bay College Norse and Milwaukee Area Technical College Stormers braved 36-degree weather, complete with a snow squall and bone-numbing winds, to play two softball games on Monday evening.
The Norse won both games, 5-4 and 17-4, to avenge two earlier losses to MATC.
"I'm freezing," Bay College Manager Ross Rahoi said. "But we got two games in. It was a good couple of days for us."
The Norse also beat Finlandia University twice on Sunday.
Karlie Patron got the start in the circle in the opener, and and she retired the first MATC batters she faced. Meanwhile, Stormer ace Samire Sino struggled with her control in the first three innings, five batters and hitting one. But Sino struck out eight batters in those first three innings, and the Norse stranded the bases loaded in both the first and third innings.
The Norse managed to take a 1-0 lead on a wild pitch that scored Sarah Wynn from third.
It stayed 1-0 until the sixth inning when the Stormers put on a two-out rally. Kennedy Arbuckle got a single, and then Sino smacked a single to put two runners on. Eliza Roman followed with a double to tie the game, with Sino being held at third base.
After a conference in the circle, Patron struck out Hannah Guibbord to end the threat.
In the bottom of the inning, McKenna Bullen got her second hit of the game to lead off the inning for the Norse. With one out, Rachael Winkel got a base hit, putting two runners aboard. Sino was able to get a called third strike on Avey Sorochoan, but Ellie Miller hit a fly ball to right field that landed out of the reach of Haley Coulliard. Two runs scored.
Then, with the 3-1 lead, Patron helped her own cause by smoking a two-run homer over the left-center field fence. The hardest hit of the game gave the Norse a 5-1 lead.
"She got me on a bad change-up, and she had me swinging in circles for the second strike," Patron said. "I anticipated that she throws the rise-ball a lot, and I saw it coming up, and I just swung as hard as I could."
But the Norse had to hang on for dear life in the seventh inning. With the rain pouring down (mixed with snow), Patron gave up a double to Abby Stone, then walked a batter and hit another to load the bases. Deanna Pfaff follwed with a base hit that scored two runs, and an error on the play allowed a third run to score.
The Norse got her at third base, however, and Patron struck out Arbuckle to end the game.
"The rain does not help, especially for a pitcher," Patron said. "Anyone who's a pitcher knows that rain is not fun. But I'm happy that we pulled this one out. I was shivvering. My legs feel like ice bricks right now."
And that was only the first game. The second game was even colder, and more winter-like as the wind picked up, and the rain-snow mixture turned to pure snow.
The nightcap was not nearly as dramatic as the Norse scored seven runs in the first inning and six more in the third inning against MATC pitcher Eliza Roman.
Patron clubbed a three-run homer during that first inning, and Bullen added a three-run double. Then in the third inning, after Wynn and Sorochan both had RBI base hits, the Norse teed off with the long ball again. First, it was Ellie Miller, with one of the longest home runs ever hit on the Bay College field, into the pavillion behind the outfield fence.
And then it was Patron, with a line drive bomb straight down the left field line. It was her third home run of the doubleheader, and the Norse cruised from there.
Winkel pitched the Norse to the victory, allowing an RBI single in the first inning to Sino but then getting 17 runs of support. Then in the fifth inning, during a snow squall, two hits and an error loaded the bases and Sino slugged a two-run base hit up the middle, with a third run scorung on an error. But Winkel got the final out, ending a 17-4 victory,
Patron struck out six and walked two in her seven innings of work to earn the win. Sino struck out 12 for the Stormers, but walked six and was tagged with five runs on five hits.
In the second game, Winkel allowed four runs (none earned) on six hits in the five inning game to earn the win. Roman was tagged for 17 runs (16 earned) on 16 hits.
Offensively, besides the home run hitters, Natalie Belanger added three hits, Sorochan scored four runs, and a total of six different batters had multiple-hit games.
Bay College avenged a pair of 3-2 losses to MATC earlier this season in games that were played indoors due to weather conditions down in Milwaukee. No such facility in Escanaba!
Milwaukee Tech fell to 9-15 on the seaaon, while the Norse improved to 25-15.
Bay is off until Friday, when the Norse travel to face the Wisconsin Lutheran junior varsity team in a pair of make-up games. Scheduled games at Finlandia and Gogebic Coummunity College have been cancelled.
Next Sunday, the Norse will host Gogebic Community College to close the regular season. Those games will start at 1:00 ET and 3:00 ET.
