STURGIS, SD – The Sturgis Scooper softball team honored their five seniors on Tuesday night at Owens Field, but couldn’t bring home a victory, losing 11-0 to the Rapid City Stevens Raiders.
The Scoopers honored senior players Grace Kiepke, Emerson Gardner, Avreigh Long, Abigail Tweedy and Katie Hill prior to the game.
Stevens put up two runs in the top of the first inning, then two more in the top of the second on a two-run homer by Addie Hock, giving the Raiders a 4-0 lead headed into the third. Stevens plated two more runs in the third and one in the fourth to jump out to a 7-0 lead.
The Scoopers couldn’t get the bat on the ball against starting Stevens pitcher Lainey Van Zee, who used a variety of pitches to confound the Sturgis hitters.
In the top of the sixth inning, Kara Collins led off with a single, then Hock blasted a two-run homer over the right field fence, adding to the Raider lead. The next batter, Van Zee, saw a pitch she loved and hit it into right centerfield, just over the fence for back-to-back four baggers. Josie Thompson added one more run, giving the Raiders an 11-0 lead and a win in six innings by the mercy rule after holding Sturgis scoreless in the bottom half of the inning.
Van Zee threw a complete game no-hitter for Stevens (5-0), striking out 14 and walking three in six innings. It was a dominant performance for the senior right hander.
“She’s a rock solid pitcher,” said Scooper head coach Kayleen Selfridge. “We talked in between innings, a pitcher like that, you just have to make contact. We need to shorten up our swings, but our swings were too long and we just couldn’t catch up to her.”
Stevens pounded out 11 hits and were led by Hock, who went 3-for-4 with two home runs and four RBIs.
Jayna Johnston took the pitching loss for Sturgis (4-6).
The Scoopers are in the hunt for a playoff berth and have visions of hosting a playoff game at home in the postseason.
“This weekend we have four big games: Watertown, Brookings, Mitchell and Yankton,” Selfridge said. “We need to put this game behind us and come out this weekend and compete, win these four games, and we’ll be sitting pretty good.”
The Scooper girls play Brookings and Watertown on Friday, then Mitchell and Yankton on Saturday at Owens Field.
