BERNE — The players on the have been learning all season but at times their inexperience shows.

And it showed on Wednesday, as the Lady Bulldogs lost to Mayfield, 21-5, to drop their record to 3-10 this season.
"We are more inexperienced than young," said BKW Coach Jim Lemire. "The kids are getting an education in softball. We have a young pitcher, who’s an eighth-grader."

Kieva Reynolds pitched five innings for the Bulldogs and did well despite giving up 12 runs. She wasn’t helped by three errors. But Mayfield also did a good job of getting timely hits.

Kayla Squires pitched the last two innings for BKW and pitched well, but errors hurt her in the seventh as Mayfield scored eight runs in the final frame. BKW committed four errors in the stanza.
"Our pitchers pitched their hearts out," Lemire said. "There was no breakdown there.
"If they are not the best-hitting team in the league, they are one of the best," Lemire said of Mayfield. "But Kayla Squires made a diving catch and we had a couple of other plays like that. We made some plays. Tracey Williams turned a double play."

The Bulldogs had their moments at the plate as well. They scored two runs in the first inning, one in the third, one in the sixth, and one in the seventh.

Keri Rossback scored in the first inning after walking and advancing around the bases. Katie Stanton also scored after reaching base on a fielder’s choice. Lindsay Hamel drove in a run with a single.

Rossback scored again in the third inning. She walked again and then stole second base. Rossback reached third on a throwing error by Mayfield’s catcher on the play. She scored when she stole home on a double steal play.

Christine Sikule scored in the sixth inning for the Bulldogs. Sikule singled and moved to second on a wild pitch. Kristi Dunigan walked to put runners on second and first. Reynolds walked to load the bases and Williams hit a ball that was misplayed by the Mayfield second baseman, which allowed Sikule to score.

Stanton scored the final run of the game for BKW. She hit a single to lead off the seventh inning. She moved to second and later third on wild pitches and scored on Amanda Tubbs’s RBI groundout.
"Our bats were a little bit better," Lemire said. "They have three good pitchers and we did a good job against them."
"Inexperience shows"

But the Bulldogs have not been able to find any consistency this season.
"We’ve definitely improved," Lemire said. "But our inexperience shows. We’ll be great one day and the next we’ll struggle."

Lemire said that a lot of the inexperience is because most of his players don’t play outside of the school season.
"There are not as many people that are dedicated to playing softball outside of the school," Lemire said. "They play soccer or volleyball in the fall and basketball in the winter and, when it comes to spring, you don’t know what you got. Some girls play softball during the rest of the year, but most don’t. It’s not an excuse; it’s just the way it is. When spring comes, we take what we have and have a good time."

There are only three seniors — Sikule, Hamel, and Nicole Shultes — on the team, so Lemire will have a lot to work with in the future, especially with a talented young pitcher like Reynolds.
"It’s the goal of the program to get kids to play part of the year outside of the school team," Lemire said. "They do it in other sports this time of the year. It makes it really tough."

But Lemire likes the way his players come out and play and practice every day.
"I like how hard they work," the coach said. "The kids openly accept a lot of the things that we are doing."