Sports Archives
Lady Bulldogs’ bats come to life as team rebounds from no hitter
By Jordan J. Michael
SCOTIA –– After being held hitless by Dani Hennel of Duanesburg on April 25, the Berne-Knox-Westerlo softball team came to life on Friday in Scotia. The Lady Bulldogs got 11 hits off of Schenectady Christian’s Becca Hartje and left with a 12-to-5 victory.
With four starters absent for a school trip to New York City, BKW was left with nine players –– enough to fill a line-up. Despite the new infield set-up behind her, Dani Kruegger pitched a complete game, striking out 12 Falcon batters.
Schenectady Christian put plenty of balls in play, but the BKW defense was on its toes.
“Defensively, with people in new spots, we played very well,” said Gary Morin, who took on the head coaching duties for the Bulldogs this season. “The mistakes didn’t pile on.”
Morin told The Enterprise that every game this year, up until Friday, had one inning that “fell apart.” It was a snowball effect, he said. BKW held up on Friday and the players seemed to be having a lot of fun.
The Lady Bulldogs rallied for five runs in both the fourth and fifth innings to take a 12-to-1 lead. During that time, Christina North had a single and a double for three RBIs; Kaitlyn Horlacher had an RBI double; Becky Amedio drove in two runs with a hit; and the defense turned a double play.
“We stayed positive and played more as a team,” said Kruegger, finding differences from when her team went up against Duanesburg. “We have a tendency to get down on ourselves when opponents score a lot of runs against us.”
BKW was scoring all the runs on Friday, in bunches. Meg Langendyke batted lead off in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings. Each Bulldog player batted at least four times.
“The new girls really stepped up today, from the top to the bottom,” Morin said. “We have to stay positive.”
The Lady Bulldogs were 2-4 in the Western Athletic Conference going into games against Schoharie and Mayfield this week. Morin said the team is learning from its mistakes, while showing an ability to grow.
“We’ve come a really long way,” said Morin. “I think this team can do great things.”
— The Altamont Enterprise, May 5, 2011