Young Lincoln Girls Softball Team works diamonds south to north for week of wins and losses

[April 17, 2017]   The best week of Spring so far allowed for lots of softball action out of the Lincoln Railsplitters. Coach Darrin Worth’s team evened their season record at 8-8 following a busy week filled with six games.

Earlier in the week Lincoln lost two close games with Glenwood in Central State Eight competition. LDN had full coverage of those games in last week’s Thursday’s edition. To catch folks up to speed those games were 7-6 and 13-12 losses against a very talented Glenwood team.

Thursday win at Southeast

Lincoln’s own young talent bounced back in a big way from those close defeats to win 10-0 over Southeast on Thursday.

Hope Moos tossed a one-hitter from the circle and got great support from her defense. Lincoln was “sure-handed in the field and didn’t commit a single error,” according to assistant coach Christian Tanner. Moos also struck out five batters in five innings of work. Of the 71 pitches Moos threw, 45 were for strikes.

Sydney Worth, Kayla Maly, Mackenzie Antoine and Moos all recorded hits for the Railsplitters. Worth and Antoine each drove in three runs.

Lincoln took advantage of the three errors committed by Southeast. Only five of Lincoln’s runs scored were earned. The Railsplitters got two runs in the bottom of the second inning to open the scoring. Lincoln scored four more runs in the bottom of each of the third and fourth innings.

Moos shut down the Lady Spartans quickly each inning and appropriately struck out to the last batter, Jade Chambers-Jones, to end the game. Baleigh Jones of Southeast recorded the only hit off Moos.

Friday at Mount Zion

On Friday evening at Mount Zion it was Lincoln’s turn to be on the receiving end of a 10-0 shutout, a no-hitter to be exact. This time Mount Zion was flawless in the field, not to mention aggressive at the plate, and handed the Railsplitters a 10-0 loss.

Mount Zion scored two runs in the first inning on a home run by Dayna Kennedy. Mount Zion added four runs in the second inning, highlighted by home runs from Alli Davis and Erica Besser. Then Mount Zion added four more runs in the third inning thanks to singles from Besser and Ruby Brown and a double by Hannah Watts. By the end of the contest Mount Zion had collected 11 hits.

Chayse Ramey and Maddie Morgan combined to throw the no-hitter while striking out seven Lincoln batters.

Kerstin Osborne took the loss for Lincoln. Osborne tossed four innings and gave up nine earned runs while striking out one batter. Of the 99 pitches Osborne threw, 56 were for strikes.

Saturday at Pekin

Saturday was an absolutely picture-perfect 80 plus degree day for the ladies to travel to Pekin to play.

Coach Worth, a Cub fan, would have to agree on a day like Saturday, in the words of Ernie Banks, “Let’s play two.” The Railsplitters did just that.

While the afternoon got a little warm, the Railsplitters bats were on fire. Home runs flew off the bats of Lauren Block, Hope Moos and Chloe Laubenstein as Lincoln took game one of the double header 12-7 over Pekin.

"Both offenses were strong at the plate as Lincoln collected 10 hits and Pekin collected eleven hits,” according to Tanner. Lincoln got on the scoreboard first by scoring two runs in the top of the third inning but Pekin quickly answered back by scoring three runs in the bottom half. Lincoln took a brief lead in the top of the fourth inning and scored three runs, highlighted by Laubenstein’s home run.

Pekin tied the game 5-5 in the bottom of the fourth inning. Pekin broke the tie in the bottom of the sixth inning and scored two runs, taking the 7-5 lead over Lincoln into the seventh inning.

Lincoln’s bats nearly burnt up in the top of the seventh inning. The ladies put seven runs across the plate, highlighted by home runs from Moos and Block. The shot from Moos drove in three runs and put Lincoln on top for good.

Moos, Laubenstein and Osborne each collected multiple hits for Lincoln, with Moos and Laubenstein each driving in three runs. Maly and Osborne collected two RBIs for Lincoln.

Moos was solid from the circle in this one, and most importantly shut down Pekin in the bottom of the seventh to earn the win.

Moos’ afternoon of work included seven strikeouts and two walks issued. She did surrender eleven hits and gave up seven runs, three of them earned. Her 108 pitches thrown consisted of 78 for strikes.

Lexi Juergens took the loss for Pekin in game one.

Game two at Pekin

In game two, Lincoln fell 5-3 to Pekin, a close contest.

Pekin scored a run in each of the first two innings to take a 2-0 lead heading into the third inning.

Lincoln ran two runs across the plate in the top of the third inning to tie the game and the game would remain tied 2-2 until the top of the fifth inning.

Lincoln managed to take the 3-2 lead but Pekin evened things up in the bottom of the fifth inning on a groundout that scored a run.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Pekin scored twice off Lincoln pitcher Kerstin Osborne to take a 5-3 lead that would hold until the end of the game.

Block, Maly, and Worth each had multiple hits for Lincoln.

Osborne took the loss while surrounding thirteen hits and striking out five batters.

Lexi Juergens got the win over Lincoln in game two.

Juergens threw seven innings and struck out eighteen Lincoln batters. Juergens gave up seven hits but only allowed one walk. She was dominate from the circle while throwing 124 pitches. Of those 124 pitches thrown, 84 were for strikes.

Lincoln’s record is an even 8-8 heading into competition this week.

The week ahead:

Monday: Lincoln at East Peoria 4:30 p.m.
Tuesday: Lincoln at Sacred Heart-Griffin 4:30 p.m. Wednesday: Lincoln hosts Sacred Heart-Griffin 4:30 p.m. at Schweitzer Field

[Teena Lowery]