Lily Doerr drove in three runs and Ava Kleinfeldt pitched 3 2/3 innings of scoreless relief as Lake Mills' softball team beat Lakeside Lutheran 7-1 at Rotary Park in Capitol North play on Thursday, May 2.
Lakeside jumped on the board off the get-go with Kieghtan Rank doubling to open the game and scoring on Keyanna Rank's one-out double. The Warriors, however, managed just four singles the rest of the way and twice stranded the bases loaded.
Payton Quest's one-out solo home run to right field on a first pitch tied it up in the Lake Mills second.
"Payton's home run really got us revved up," Lake Mills softball coach Jim Clift said.
The L-Cats did two-out damage in the fourth, with Aubrey Lepak, who was 3-for-3, singling in the go-ahead run on a grounder just inside the third-base line. Courtesy runner Zoey Buchholtz later scored on a wild pitch to make it 3-1.
Doerr singled home a pair on a hard-hit ground ball to left in the fifth. The L-Cats added more insurance in the sixth as Savannah Radtke and Doerr contributed back to back RBI singles.
"We were swinging the bat early, but some of those hits were going straight to one of their players," Clift said. "We continue to be very good with our pitch selection. Kieghtan Rank got us to chase her riseball last time and we didn't do that as much this time."
Aubrey Lepak started for the L-Cats (15-2, 4-1 in conference), allowing a run on five hits with six walks and four strikeouts in 3 1/3 innings. Kleinfeldt, after Lepak walked three straight, entered with the bases loaded and one out in the fourth and got out of the jam with a fielder's choice and strikeout. Kleinfeldt fanned five over and walked none, allowing just a single to earn the decision.
"Aubrey has been pitching very solid as of late," Clift said of the decision to start Lepak. "Her off-speed stuff has been working and she's been confusing batters. She's come a long way in the last year.
"Lakeside has seen Ava at least four times now in her career and they swung the bats well and got on her in our first game. We knew they hadn't had a chance to see Aubrey much, if at all. Aubrey pitched well. She and Ava are a nice tandem working together."
Kieghtan Rank went the distance and took the loss for the Warriors (8-7, 2-5), who had a four-game win streak (all against ranked teams) snapped.
"Kieghtan threw a solid game, but they did a great job hitting the ball," Lakeside softball coach Matt Doering said. "Credit Lake Mills, it was a tight game through three innings and they found a way to get the offense going.
"The girls started out strong to put a run up in the first, but couldn't get the key hits to add on to it. We left too many runners in scoring position.
"It was a great seven days for us. We beat four ranked teams, but tonight we kind of ran out of gas. There is a lot of season left and we are getting better every day."
The seventh-ranked L-Cats, by virtue of Lodi's 6-4 extra-inning loss to Poynette, grab hold of the coveted top spot in the Capitol North. Lake Mills is in the driver's seat with three league games remaining, starting today at Lodi.
"What we really need to do going down the stretch is keep hitting the ball," Clift said. "We want to make pitchers have to work hard. I thought we played good defense tonight. I want us to peak in all phases. Ava was on and looked great tonight.
"Ava and Aubrey continuing to pitch as effectively as they have will be big as we attempt to peak heading into the playoffs. After being a little flat on Tuesday versus Columbus, we were not flat at all today."
LAKE MILLS 7, LAKESIDE 1
Lakeside 100 000 0 -- 1 6 1
Lake Mills 010 222 x -- 7 11 0
Leading hitters -- LL: Smulders 2x2, Ki. Rank (2B), Ke. Rank (2B); LM: Doerr 2x4, Radtke 2x4, Lepak 3x3, Quest (HR).
Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) -- LL: Ki. Rank L; 6-11-7-6-1-5; LM: Lepak 3.1-5-1-1-6-4, Kleinfeldt W; 3.2-1-0-0-0-5.
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