Saturday, April 20 was a good day to spend at Waterloo Fireman’s Park. Both the Waterloo baseball and softball teams hosted tournaments, inviting talented squads from the area to compete. The softball team brought in non-conference opponents Deerfield, Mineral Point, and Lomira.
It was a day of mixed results against some tough competition. The day got off to a strong start for Waterloo with a 10-0 win over Deerfield, called due to mercy rule after five innings. The Pirates were in for a pair of tough battles to follow, though. They’d take a 6-1 loss to Mineral Point and 10-4 loss to Lomira to close the day.
Things got off to an inspiring start on Saturday with the five-inning mercy rule win over Deerfield. Waterloo freshman pitcher Ally Schaumann had perhaps her best start of the season in the circle. In her five innings pitched, she allowed only four hits with seven strikeouts in the shutout.
Waterloo’s offense was more of a slow burn. The Pirates didn’t score in the bottom of the first inning and got one run in both the second and third. Things clicked in the bottom of the fourth, though, as they strung together seven straight runs. They added one more in the fifth to get the game to the necessary threshold to end things early.
Freshmen were story of the game at the plate. Schaumann doubled as a valuable bat, going 2-3 with two RBIs. Classmate Callie Davison smashed a pair of doubles in her two plate appearances, driving in two runs and allowing her to come in to score twice herself. Senior Bri Lauersdorf and junior Alix McCarthy also connected on one double each and McCarthy, seniors Brenna Huebner, Katrina Freund, and Leeah Dorn as well as sophomore Emma Baumann accounted for the remainder of the game’s RBIs with one each.
Things got much tougher for Waterloo in their next two games. While the Pirates did enter the weekend ranked No. 10 in Division 4 of the most recent Wisconsin Fastpitch Softball Coaches Association (WFSCA) coaches poll, so were Mineral Point and Lomira. The Pointers came in two slots ahead of Waterloo in Division 4 while the Lions were No. 5 in Division 3.
While Waterloo would eventually fall to Mineral Point in its second game of the day, the Pirates struck first in the bottom of the first inning. Huebner led off by drawing a walk. Baumann stepped up and laced a single on a frozen rope to right field. The shot bought time for Huebner to score all the way from first base to start the game with a 1-0 lead.
Sophomore Naveah Lawson handled the pitching duties in this one to give Schaumann’s arm a rest. She allowed 13 hits in her complete game effort but surrendered just one walk with four strikeouts. Mineral Point nabbed an equalizing run off of her in the top of the second inning and pulled ahead with three runs in the fifth and two more in the seventh. Waterloo was unable to match this production offensively as the Pirates only managed five more hits after Baumann’s RBI single in the first inning.
Schaumann and Lawson split pitching responsibilities in the final game of the day against Lomira. Schaumann kept the Lions scoreless in the first inning but allowed four runs in the second. Lawson took over from there, allowing six runs in the final four innings of work. Both pitchers accounted for three strikeouts each.
Waterloo’s offense was already behind 4-0 by the time it scored in the top of the third inning. The run came via an error after Baumann and sophomore Marissa Spoke set the table with back-to-back singles. McCarthy punched the ball back at the pitcher, a mishandled shot up the gut that bought time for Baumann to race home.
By the time Waterloo scored again in the top of the fifth inning, Lomira had strung together six more runs to pull ahead 10-1. Again, Baumann and Spoke set the table to score with the former drawing a walk and the latter reaching on an error. With two outs on on the board, Lauersdorf came up clutch with an RBI grounder single to left field, bringing Baumann home to make it 10-2.
Waterloo capped the game with some big hits in the top of the sixth inning to get the last laugh and a pair of runs. Davison lifted a line drive to left field and touched them all, a rare inside-the-park homerun. The bats stayed hot as Huebner followed with a triple to center field. She came in to score in the ensuing at-bat as Freund lifted a sacrifice fly to left field. The inning ended soon after, crystalizing a 10-4 loss for the Pirates.
Undeterred, Waterloo bounced back with a big 9-1 win at Palmyra-Eagle to start the new week on Monday, April 22.
Lawson and Schaumann again split pitching responsibilities. Lawson pitched the first two innings. She allowed the only run of the game, but it didn’t count against her earned run average as the runner reached on an error. Schaumann slammed the door on the host Panthers. In her five innings of work, she allowed only three hits and struck out three without allowing any more runs.
It was a dominant day of batting for Davison, Baumann, and Freund. Davison hit a more traditional homerun, this one clearing the fence in center field in the midst of a 3-4 performance that also included a double for one RBI and four runs scored. Baumann went 2-4 with a team-high three RBIs and Freund’s sole hit of the day accounted for two more RBIs.
The victory has the Pirates back on track with an 8-4 overall record. They also persist as top dogs in the Capitol — South conference, the only remaining undefeated team at 4-0.
The Palmyra-Eagle game was just the beginning of a busy week for Waterloo. The Pirates now return to conference play, first with a home contest against Belleville on Tuesday, April 23 before traveling to rival Marshall on Thursday, April 25. To close the week, Waterloo will host a non-conference doubleheader against Randolph on Saturday, April 27.
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Capitol — South conference standings
-as of Monday, April 22
(overall records in parenthesis)
1. Waterloo, 4-0 (8-4)
2. Marshall, 2-1 (5-3)
3. Cambridge, 1-2 (3-5)
4. Wisconsin Heights, 0-1 (1-8)
5. Belleville, 0-3 (1-6)
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