Big numbers add up to Rockets’ first softball win

For the Cedar Grove-Belgium softball team, Monday’s game against Howards Grove was a polar opposite of its Friday contest against Oostburg.

The Rockets earned their first win of the season, 22-19, behind multiple hits, walks and Tigers’ errors.

Natalie Davies finished with three hits, and Maria Dries had two hits, including a solo home run to center field. Olivia Piatek had two hits, two walks and scored five runs, and Megan Gonwa added two hits.

“We hit the ball all over the place. We had a lot of walks in this one, too,” Rockets coach Scott Soerens said.

During a 10-run third inning, Piatek and Davies each had two hits and scored two runs. Allison Niebauer walked twice.

The Rockets held a 13-8 lead after the third inning and kept the advantage from there.

Anna Thiele went the distance for the win, allowing nine hits, striking out four and walking five.

Against Oostburg on Friday, the Rockets lost, 10-0, in five innings. Dries had a double for their only hit.

Of the 15 Rocket outs, the Lady Dutch forced eight pop flies and recorded four strikeouts.

“We just didn’t show up,” Soerens said.

Thiele allowed six hits, walked five and whiffed five. The Rockets made seven errors.

On April 26, the Rockets lost a heartbreaker, 10-9, to Elkhart Lake-Glenbeulah.

After taking a 9-8 lead into the seventh inning, the Rockets gave up the tying run but then got a strikeout to end the inning.

Or so they thought.

The final pitch got so far away from the Rockets’ catcher that the batter easily made first and headed toward second. The catcher overthrew the second baseman, and the ball sailed to the right of the center fielder.

“The girl just kept going,” Soerens said.

“That was the winning run.”

It was a deflating way to lose.

“A little bit,” Soerens said with a laugh.

Gonwa went 3-for-5, and Dries was 3-for-4 with a double. Niebauer went 2-for-4 with a double, and Maddie Green was 2-for-4.

Thiele went the distance, allowing nine hits and three walks. She struck out one.

On April 24, the Rockets dropped a doubleheader at Mishicot, 15-5 and 16-1.

In the first game, Dries had a two-run home run over the left-field fence.

“When she hits it, she hits it. There’s no question if it’s going out,” Soerens said.

Lauren Holzberger had a triple and two walks. Piatek had a hit and two RBI, and Davies had a hit. Thiele added three walks and Niebauer had two.

Thiele allowed nine hits and 11 walks.

In response to the bad weather to start the season, the Big East Conference determined all second games of doubleheaders would count as nonconference games. It would have been too difficult to reschedule so many games, so the plan is for every conference team to play each other once this season.

Soerens said he is treating the second games of doubleheaders as glorified practices.

Dries pitched a couple of innings in the second game, and Nadia Dries threw two innings in her first time on the rubber.

This week, the Rockets, 1-6, were scheduled to play at Random Lake on Tuesday and at Manitowoc Lutheran on Thursday. They will then play a doubleheader at Sheboygan Lutheran on Tuesday, May 8.