Red Hawks get walk-off win over Raiders

Elle Cox and Tatum Johnson have been the Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau High School softball team’s most reliable performers on offense over the last month.

With those two players up to bat in the bottom of the seventh inning in last Tuesday’s county battle with Arcadia in a 4-4 game, G-E-T coach Nate DeJager liked his team’s chances.

Cox stepped into the batters’ box and slapped a hard line drive into the outfield, but Arcadia made the play on defense. Johnson crunched a deep fly ball to the center outfield fence in the next at-bat, and Halene DeJager scored from second to give G-E-T the 5-4 walk-off victory over their Trempealeau County foe at G-E-T Middle School.

“I knew that was happening,” Nate DeJager said of the winner. “Either Elle was gonna get a hit or Tatum was gonna get a hit.”

“My advice to Halene on second (base) was don’t get doubled out on a line drive. One of those two is gonna hit a line drive, and Elle did. Hers easily could have done the job, too, but I knew Tatum was going to do it.”

Arcadia (3-14 overall, 2-10 Coulee) was the first team to score on Tuesday, securing a 1-0 lead in the top of the third before the hosts tied the game in the bottom half of the inning.

The Raiders again found themselves in front in the fifth inning, when they exploded for three runs behind Kiley Fitzpatrick and Whitney Sonsalla. Fitzpatrick led Arcadia with two hits.

“I told the girls to go into that inning and be aggressive, we have to put the ball in play,” Arcadia coach Taylor Haines said, “and that’s what they did. So I was very happy with how they played offensively in that inning.

Maggie Bistodeau didn’t let the visitors get too comfortable with their lead, though, as the G-E-T senior hit an outfield single in the bottom of the fifth to bring home a pair of runs and knot the score again at four runs a side.

Those quick responses for G-E-T (7-13, 5-6 Coulee) kept Arcadia at bay as the at-bats continued to dwindle for both teams on Tuesday. Part of that has been working through a tough schedule, their coach said.

“We’ve been learning how to be more resilient,” DeJager said. “We’ve played a really hard schedule to this point, and I feel like that should start paying off in these sorts of moments where you can be more resilient and get through these situations, and they did.”

Shayna Kirkey led G-E-T with a pair of hits and was also the starting pitcher for the home team. The senior allowed four hits and two earned runs while striking out nine Arcadia batters and walking four.

The Raiders got a runner on base in the top of the seventh inning, but the G-E-T defense caught Arcadia trying to steal to stop the scoring threat.

Both coaches said the game was just another step toward preparing for when the games count even more than in the conference schedule.

Haines told her team she liked the way they didn’t give up but also reminded them that if they can take out those short stretches of mental errors they can play with anybody.

“We just need to finish the games,” Haines said. “We’re in all of these games and are losing by one run. But we need to finish and keep pushing through a little extra and can’t get complacent.”

Haines’ counterpart also likes his team’s playoff potential if they can avoid errors and stay in close games to the end the way they did on Tuesday.

“We seed for playoffs tomorrow, so having another win on the schedule is really good for us,” DeJager said. “We’ve got that very tough schedule, so there’s not a lot of games on there that are easy. This was a good win tonight.”

The Red Hawks received the seventh seed in their Division Three bracket and will host (10) La Crosse Aquinas on Thursday. Arcadia is the ninth seed and plays at (8) Nekoosa the same day. 

Westby 6 G-E-T 1

The No. 8 team in all of Division Three used a late push to beat the Red Hawks last Thursday.

Caroline Mack gave G-E-T a 1-0 lead on an error in the top of the third inning at Westby High School, and that score held up until the Norse tied the game in the fourth. 

Westby (16-2 overall, 11-0 Coulee) added five runs in the final two innings to escape with the win.

Shayna Kirkey tossed nine strikeouts and allowed three hits, and six different Red Hawks recorded a hit.

BR Falls 6 G-E-T 1

The Red Hawks fell behind in the first inning and couldn’t mount a comeback in Friday’s conference loss to the Tigers (5-9, 3-8 Coulee).

Black River Falls earned a 5-0 lead through three innings and finished with 11 hits and a pair of home runs.

Kirkey struck out seven batters and walked three others, and Ellie Cox led G-E-T with two hits.

Mosinee 15 G-E-T 5

A 12-run inning sealed the fate for G-E-T on the road on Saturday.

Mosinee turned a one-run deficit into a massive lead with the double-digit explosion in the fourth inning.

The Mustangs collected 13 hits and 12 RBI to go with four extra base hits, while Kinley Anderson led G-E-T on offense with a 2-for-3 performance. Anderson and Emma Grams each had a double.

Kirkey and Samantha Stanton split time on the mound for G-E-T.