WESTON – Two of the best pitchers in the KCI Conference had an early season duel when the North Platte softball team (12-3) came away with a 5-0 win over West Platte (7-2) on Sept. 14.
West Platte sophomore Sophie Grier rounds second base alongside North Platte senior Courtney Dehn in the Lady Panthers’ 5-0 win on Sept. 14.
North Platte sophomore Kate Wolf and West Platte sophomore Sophie Grier have had some impressive outings this fall prior to the matchup as Wolf walked away with a shutout win. Wolf only gave up two hits and struck out eight batters, while Grier had 10 strikeouts and allowed seven hits.
North Platte wasn’t able to get a hit on Grier until the top of the fourth inning, and the Lady Panthers made the most of it. With one out, Lindsay Ramsey was walked; then Courtney Dehn and Camryn Kersten had back-to-back doubles.
Wolf added a single and Sophie Greer – who is a North Platte sophomore with a similar name to the opposing pitcher – had a ground out to send Kersten home and West Platte closed out the inning and headed to the dugout trailing 3-0. Grier reached first base on an error but North Platte forced three quick outs and Ramsey had an inside the park home run in the top of the fifth inning.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, West Platte was in scoring position when Brook Allison reached first base on an error and Emma Downing singled on a bunt in the first two at-bats. The North Platte defense responded and closed out the inning with the next two batters.
Brooke Kretzer had an RBI single in the top of the seventh inning to add one last run for the Lady Panthers, who came out with the 5-0 triumph. This was the closest West Platte has come to beating North Platte at home since losing 9-6 on Sept. 10, 2009.
West Platte and North Platte both entered the night coming off a 1-run loss on Sept. 12. The Lady Blue Jays lost 8-7 to Jefferson (6-0) and the Lady Panthers fell 2-1 to Sherwood (9-2).
West Platte had a 7-0 lead over Jefferson in the fourth inning but let the game slip away despite having 10 hits. North Platte only had one hit – an inside the park homer by Ramsey – as the game went into extra innings with Sherwood and gave up a home run over the left field fence in the top of the eighth.
After the 2-game losing skid, West Platte got back on track with a 16-6 victory over Stewartsville with Osborn on Sept. 18. North Platte had a tough matchup with Class 3 foe Savannah (8-4) and got beat 8-0 as Wolf left the game early with an illness on Sept. 18.
West Platte will search for another conference win when it hosts Penney on Sept. 21. North Platte will head to Mid-Buchanan on Sept. 21.