Staff photo by Adam Stewart
Marion third baseman Sam Davies tries to apply a tag to a Riley County player in the first round of regional softball on Monday.
News editor
The Marion softball team didn’t get a hit in their regional first-round game Monday against Riley County, losing 11-0 to the lower-seeded Falcons.
The start of the game was promising, with the team not allowing a hit in the first inning and Balee Shiplet leading off with a walk. But the Warriors never got a runner into scoring position, while the Falcons built an 8-0 lead after three innings.
Riley County added three more runs in the top of the fifth inning. The Warriors needed two runs in the fifth to extend the game. With Megan Richmond on first after a Riley County error, Sam Davies made the best contact the Warriors had all game. Unfortunately the ball was hit directly to the centerfielder, who caught it to end the game.
The Warriors finished the season with an 8-9 record.
“I think the season as a whole was a win for us,” coach Jennifer Felvus said.
Before the season, the team set five goals for success, and they met three of them, passing the team’s 2012 win total despite playing four fewer games, hitting over .300 as a team in the regular season, and posting a .500 winning percentage in the regular season.
The two goals the team missed were ones that, if they had been met, would have made it a historic season for the team, Felvus said.
She was happy to see the improvement that the team made through the season, playing in a lot of good, close games. The five seniors on the team — Shiplet, Andrea Nordquist, Montana Percell, Jay Dee Schafers, and Chelsea Voth — set a good example for the younger players by being willing to make changes to improve.