Without many competitive games early in the season, the North Platte softball team (11-0) added the Class 2 Runner-Up to the schedule and survived a barnburner on September 12.
Scarlett Slugantz pitched against all by one batter in the Lady Panthers 3-2 win over Sherwood on Sept. 13.
Since the Lady Panthers had a light week – with only two games originally scheduled – they reached out to a couple of teams that they don’t typically play, and Sherwood (9-1) agreed to travel 92 miles for a big matchup at Dearborn. In a contest that saw two undefeated teams playing, North Platte came out with a tight 3-2 win over Sherwood.
“That just speaks to the level of play that these girls are used to,” North Platte head coach Farrah Seckel said. “They play all summer long in high level competitive ball, so they’ve been in these games and these high-pressure situations.”
While the Lady Marksmen were only four runs shy of a state championship a season ago, they didn’t play clean softball against the Lady Panthers. Sherwood had five errors on the day, including a pivotal one in the bottom of the third inning when Olivia Rogers bunted and North Platte scored the opening two runs of the day.
“We were able to produce a few hits here and there and unluckily for them, they had a few errors that led to us having speed on the bases. When we have speed on the bases we do damage, so we were able to score a couple there just using our speed,” Seckel said.
Sherwood responded with a strong fifth inning and tied the game 2-2 when the North Platte defense walked two batters, had an error and gave up a pair of singles. The tie was short-lived, and the Lady Panthers went back up 3-2 in the bottom of the fifth inning when the Lady Marksmen walked Rogers with the bases loaded.
“I told the girls they had to continue to be smart in the box, watch that ball and don’t swing at any high ones. We decided we were going to play a smart game in there and it put pressure on that pitcher because we weren’t taking the bait on some of her rise balls, so we were able to get runners on base and score,” Seckel said.
Sherwood didn’t reach any base for the remainder of the game with its next six batters getting out in the last two innings. After her third strikeout and a groundout, Scarlett Slugantz was pulled in the top of the seventh inning for Courtney Dehn who forced a batter to ground out as Camryn Kersten earned the putout to seal the game.
“They needed that game where they have to stay focused, grind through it and find a way to win. They played that game right between the ears and that’s what they had to do to win; that pitcher’s legit,” Seckel said.
Slugantz had both of the Lady Panthers’ hits, while the Lady Marksmen had four hits. North Platte will look to keep its hot streak going into KCI play when the Lady Panthers take on Mid-Buchanan (11-4) at home on September 22.