The Sun Prairie West softball team had to wait its turn to start the new 2024 season. The Wolves had four games in their scheduled opening week cancelled, spanning from Monday, April 1 through Friday, April 5. Saturday, April 6 was the first day the field was playable. On that day, West welcomed in Big Eight conference rival Verona, a reschedule from Tuesday, to open the year.
The Wildcats entered the game having already played and lost three games. They showed very early that they wouldn’t let that streak stretch to four. Junior pitcher Mallorie Kreuser stepped up with the bases loaded and one out on the board in the top of the first inning. She blasted a grand slam over the left field wall. Verona never looked back in an eventual 9-4 victory.
Sun Prairie West starter Brooke Rhoads was challenged by the Wildcats. After avoiding further damage following the first inning grand slam, Verona nabbed two more runs off her in the top of the second. A leadoff error and subsequent double allowed Verona to knock in a pair of RBIs, extending the lead to 6-0.
Things didn’t go much better in the top of the third. After striking out the leadoff batter, she walked two straight batters, allowed a single to load the bases, then walked in Verona’s seventh run of the ballgame.
Freshman Skye Robinson trotted in from center field to take over on the bump. Verona welcomed her by immediately blasting a two-run double to stretch its lead to 9-0. To Robinson’s credit, this was the last noise Verona’s offense made. She only allowed three hits for the remainder of the game. Neither of the runs counted towards her earned run average and she struck out three batters in her 4.2 innings of work.
After three innings of silence, Sun Prairie West’s offense found some life in the bottom of the fourth. Senior third baseman Natalie Sozio reached base on an error, bringing junior Luci Moreno to the dish. She smoked a double into center field, bringing in Sozio for the Wolves’ first run of the game.
They didn’t score in the fifth inning, but added two runs in the sixth. Junior shortstop Audrey Davis led off by drawing a walk, followed by a single from senior left fielder Ava Paske which pushed Davis to third base. A wild pitch brought Davis home, narrowing the Verona lead to 9-2. The next at-bat, Moreno stepped up in the clutch again with a single to left field to score Paske.
The Wolves never quit, adding a fourth and final run in the bottom of the seventh inning. Robinson led off with a single, stole second base, and was bunted over to third by Rhoads. Davis stepped up and hammered a grounder to the shortstop, buying time for Robinson to sprint home and bring the game to its final score, 9-4.
Sun Prairie West will look to build off of that late momentum and rebound in its next game, a home matchup with Madison West on Monday, April 8. That will be the first of four games for the Wolves that week. They’ll also face Madison East/La Follette at Madison College on Thursday, April 11, host Janesville Parker on Friday, April 12, and head to DeForest on Saturday, April 13.
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