Red Oak gets first win as Essex takes tourney

 RED OAK — The Red Oak softball team picked up their first win of the season Saturday morning as part of the sixth annual Red Oak Softball Tourney at the Red Oak Sports Complex.

The Tigers defeated Riverside 12-8 to begin pool play at the tournament. It’s the first career victory for new softball coach Tristin Johnson, who was hired during the offseason.

“It was good to pick up a early win and hopefully build some confidence off of that,” Johnson said. “There’s a lot of stuff we have to work on, but we are young. I was really proud with the way they played today.”

The Tigers fell behind early 5-0 against Riverside, but rallied and kept scoring, thanks to big hits by players Sydney Streicher and Kameryn Buntrock.

Buntrock, an eighth grader, nearly hit one out of the park, but missed out on getting her first home run and ended up with a double.

“I thought it was gone, too, but it hit the top of the fence and stayed in,” Johnson said.

Eighth grader Zoey Welter held off Riverside from there.

For much of the day, Red Oak had three eighth graders in the line-up, including Buntrock, Welter and Ashlee Young, who played in the outfield.

Both Buntrock and Young went 2-for-3 with two runs scored. Welter meanwhile got the win, pitching five innings and giving up eight runs (five earned) on seven hits with five strikeouts.

“They stepped up. They’re up to the challenge,” Johnson said. “They’re learning some things, but they have stepped up big time.”

Sarah Behrens went 2-for-4  with two runs scored, while Streicher went 2-for-2 with a run scored and four RBIs.

Alexis Wingfield, Hailey Fada and Morgan Akers all scored runs for Red Oak.

The win was the only one for Red Oak as they lost their other pool play game, 12-0, to Essex.

All three teams in Red Oak’s pool were 1-1. The tiebreaker came down to run differential, which gave the edge to Essex, who only lost by one run (7-6) to Riverside.

Because of the run differential tiebreaker, Red Oak played Shenandoah in the final game and lost by a 7-0 score.

Despite the losses, Johnson was pleased with a lot of what he saw Saturday. However, Johnson knows there’s still work to do.

“We’ve got to keep building on the things that we see and keep working hard and it’s definitely going to lead to bigger and better things,” he said. “We have one senior, we want to do good for [Shelbie Perez], but we’re also building for the next few years and we’re looking pretty good for the building process.

Red Oak began their season Friday night with a 5-3 loss on the road to Lenox.

The Tigers kept close, but Lenox stayed ahead.

Behrens went 3-for-4 with a double and three RBIs. Jasmine Forward was 1-for-3, while Shelbie Perez went 1-for-4.

Streicher scored two of Red Oak’s three runs as she went 0-for-1 with two walks. Wingfield scored the third run.

Red Oak was back in action Monday night versus Shenandoah. Results weren’t available as of press time.

Red Oak goes back on the road Wednesday when they face Essex.

Essex vs. Griswold

The final game of the day came down to two area teams as it was Essex winning the Red Oak softball tournament 7-6 in against Griswold.

The difference was the fifth inning as Essex scored six runs to rally back with the 90-minute time limit approaching.

All six runs for Essex were scored with two outs in the inning. 

Skalberg hit in the tying score with a grounder past third base into the outfield, scoring Bethany Johnson. Hannah Stanley followed up with a two-RBI double, scoring both Ausha Gay and Skalberg.

The Tigers had one last chance to extend the game for at least another half inning. They were able to get one run across, but Skalberg and the Trojanettes defense held them off.

Griswold entered the bottom half of the fifth inning with a 5-1 lead. They were up 2-1 in the top of the fifth when Kinzey Nicklaus knocked in Payton Rush with a hit. 

Hannah Misner followed with a RBI single that scored courtesy runner and catcher Mandi Backhaus, who was running for pitcher Marlia Rossell.

“A couple people said they hit the ball a lot and I just needed to know I had to throw my best game. I was pretty tired so I came into the game thinking I was just going to do the best I could,” Skalberg said.

Alyx Flippin helped score the third run thanks to a dropped third strike that scored Madison Potter.

Both teams were scoreless in the first inning, but it was Essex who struck first with a two-out RBI single by Amber Ohnmacht, scoring Gay and giving the Trojanettes a 1-0 lead.

Griswold responded swiftly in the top of the third with two runs, highlighted by a RBI single by Nicklaus, scoring Rush. Misner knocked in the go-ahead run on a ground out that was scored by Rossell.

The win for Essex led to the day ending well after the morning starting out rough with the 7-6 loss to Riverside.

“It was early in the morning and we all needed to wake up,” Skalberg said.

Essex gave up all seven runs in the third and fourth inning to Riverside, which proved to be the difference. 

Skalberg had a big game against Riverside, going 3-for-3, including a home run, her first this season.

The Trojanettes needed to score runs in their second game if they wanted to make it into the finals. They did that with a 12-0 win against Red Oak in four innings.

Essex scored the bulk of their runs in the second inning when they posted nine.

Johnson, Ciara Burnison and Kym Graham all scored multiple runs in the win. Johnson was 2-for-3 with a double, a triple, two runs scored and four RBIs. 

Graham went 1-for-3 with two runs scored. Burnison was 1-for-2 with a double and two runs scored.

Jescenia Mosley, Daiton Martin, Gay, Amber Ohnmacht, Skalberg and Stanley all scored runs as well.

Griswold ended up with the cleaner path on their way to the finals. The Tigers easily defeated Shenandoah 8-0 and Fremont-Mills 14-1 to guarantee them a spot in the finals.

The Tigers had a close lead early on with two runs in the first versus Shenandoah. They added a run in the fifth and five more in the sixth to put away the Fillies.

Lead-off hitter Jackie Rush stepped up against Shenandoah by going 4-for-4 with a triple, three runs scored and two RBIs.

Rossell also stepped up at bat by going 3-for-3 with three RBIs. 

Rossell was the winning pitcher when she tossed a complete game, allowing five hits and one walk, while striking out nine Fillies.

Hannah Willms was 2-for-3, while Nicklaus went 3-for-4 with a double.

The game against Fremont-Mills was much shorter as they were able to get it in five.

Dani Kentner allowed just one run (unearned) and struck out five Knights in five innings of work. Nicklaus was the leading hitter by going 3-for-4 with a run and a RBI.