Raiders come up one game short of CC title
Arcadia’s Megan Breska lets loose a pitch during a non-conference tilt against Blair-Taylor last week. (Times photograph by Zach Rastall)
Despite winning their last Coulee Conference game of the season, the Arcadia softball team wound up one win shy of a share of the conference championship after West Salem swept G-E-T to lock the title up outright.
The Raiders (15-8, 10-2 Coulee) do have the distinction of being the only Coulee team to hand the Panthers a loss this season (as part of a doubleheader split back in April) but an April 17 home loss to Westby proved costly in the long run.
In the upcoming Division 3 playoffs, Arcadia is a No. 6 seed and, after a first-round bye, will be on the road to face No. 3 seed Somerset in the regional semifinals next Tuesday at 5 p.m.
Arcadia 13 I/G 3
Huge rallies in the first and fifth innings allowed the Raiders to pick up a mercy-rule win over the Indees (3-13) in non-conference action last Monday in Arcadia.
In the bottom of the first, Arcadia stormed ahead with a five-run rally featuring RBI singles by both Tessah Ely and Madison Grotjahn along with Chloe Schlosstein’s RBI double. Kaitlyn Bremer scored on a passed ball in the fourth to extend the advantage to 6-0.
Independence/Gilmanton sliced its deficit in half with three runs in the top of the fifth, featuring Hannah Ekern’s two-run home run to right and Katelyn Kampa’s sac fly.
However, the Raiders poured on seven runs in the bottom of the fifth with a rally that saw all their runs scored on errors, passed balls or wild pitches.
Arcadia’s Sacia Boland went 2 for 4 with a run scored. Ekern led the way for the Indees by going 2 for 3 with that two-run blast in the fourth.
Arcadia 3 Viroqua 2
Three early runs were just enough to hold up for an Arcadia win against the Blackhawks (9-13, 4-8) to close out Coulee play last Tuesday in Viroqua.
Sacia Boland’s RBI double and Madison Grotjahn’s RBI single got the scoring started for the Raiders in the top of the second, followed by Kaitlyn Bremer’s two-out RBI single in the third to make it 3-0.
Two runs in the fifth by Viroqua whittled that lead down to 3-2. Though the Blackhawks threatened to tie the game after a one-out triple in the bottom of the seventh, Bremer retired the next two batters without allowing that run to score to finish off the victory.
Bremer earned the win in the circle by allowing two runs on seven hits, a walk and a hit batter while striking out four over seven innings. At the plate, Tatum Drazkowski went 2 for 4.
