Wildcats looking to improve after tough losses

Emmalee Scheibe

Senior outfielder Morgan Vasa takes off for first base in the Monday morning game against NSIC opponent St. Cloud State. Vasa currently has a .310 batting average through the first 23 games of the season for the Wildcats. Vasa has recorded 18 hits in her 58 at bats so far. She is optimistic that the team will improve throughout the rest of the season.

Evelyn Knox, Staff Writer
April 2, 2019

The Wayne State softball team dropped to 9-14 overall and 0-6 in the NSIC after being swept by conference opponent St. Cloud State Monday morning at the Pete Chapman Softball Complex in Wayne. The visiting Huskies are now 20-10 overall and 2-4 in conference play.

In the first game of the early morning doubleheader, the Wildcats fell 13-5 to the Huskies. St. Cloud held the edge over Wayne State and never looked back after scoring seven runs in the first inning.

WSC scored two runs in the first inning off a two-run homer from senior Emily Chandler. Chandler and freshman Kim Vidlak lead the hitting effort for Wayne State with two runs apiece.

“There is a lot of stuff that we need to work on, mostly not playing as individuals,” senior Morgan Vasa said. “Mentally we were small and we played defeated and couldn’t find anything to pick us up or get us out of it.”

Senior pitcher Riley Vanderveen was tagged with the pitching loss working two innings for WSC while freshman pitcher Makenna Adkison filled in pitching the remaining four innings.

In the second game against the Huskies, WSC fell 12-5. The Wildcats and Huskies were tied 4-4 after four innings of play before St. Cloud went on a run highlighted with four homers that helped them complete the sweep over Wayne State.
“We made too many errors which cost us too many runs, which resulted in us getting down,” Vasa said.

Sophomore Ashley Hernandez and Chandler were each able to blast their own individual homers to help the Wayne State effort. The Huskies impressive seven run fifth inning was too much for the Wildcats to overcome as St. Cloud took an 11-4 lead.

Sophomore starting pitcher Maddie Moser suffered the pitching loss working 4 1/3 innings. Vanderveen and Adkison provided secondary relief to finish out the doubleheader.

“There is a long road ahead of us, but we’ve just hit a little bump along the way,” Vasa said. “We have tons of room for improvement at every position on the field and it’s a kink we’re still working out with one another.”

WSC will be back in action this upcoming Saturday facing NSIC opponent Concordia-St. Paul in St. Paul, Minnesota at 1 and 3 p.m.