Pioneers win at South Shore

The Butternut/Mercer girls softball team traveled to Port Wing on Monday to take on the South Shore Cardinals in a Northern Lights Conference matchup. The Pioneers were solid in the field and with the bats as they emerged with a 14-5 win.

The Pioneers got off to a fast start with a lead off home run from Jersey Polencheck. Lizzie Pritzl walked and was brought home by an RBI single from Josie Wegner to give the Pioneers a 2-0 early advantage.

The Pioneers shutdown the Cardinals in the bottom half of the inning on defense, and then got the offense going again in the second inning with 3 more runs thanks to a few walks and defensive miscues.

The Pioneers scored another 3 runs in the top of the third inning, highlighted by a 2 out triple from Kalyee Schloer. Josie Wegner was solid through four innings on the mound, allowing just one base hit and no runs, giving the Pioneers a solid 8-0 lead after four complete innings.

The Cardinals held the Pioneers in check in the fifth inning and rallied in the bottom half on four walks and a couple of fielder's choice hits and an error to score 4 runs. Jersey Polencheck came to the mound and earned back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning and continued pitching for the remainder of the game.

Butternut/Mercer scored 2 runs in the sixth and another 2 runs in the seventh inning. South Shore scored 1 run in the sixth to make the final score 14-5.

Polencheck added two doubles to go with her home run and Josie Wegner had three hits and four RBIs to lead the Pioneer attack.

"I thought we played pretty solid all around tonight,” said Pioneers Coach Glenn Wegner. “Josie did a good job pitching to earn her second win of the season and the defense made some really nice plays out there, especially Jenny Klopatek at third and Anya Brandenberg played a flawless first base. Big offensive night for Jersey, Josie, and Kaylee.”

The Pioneers will have a non-conference game next at Bessemer, Michigan on Wednesday. The team will host Mellen on Thursday to wrap up the regular season. Then it is off to Flambeau for a regional matchup as the number six seed.

"I think we match up well for that game,” Wegner said. “We played them earlier in the season and played them pretty tough. Just had one bad inning that cost us, so we will be ready"