North Scott earns sweep

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By Dearrel Bates | Friday, June 6, 2008 12:57 AM CDT | () comments

ELDRIDGE, Iowa — Brie Haycraft was the winning pitcher in both ends of a softball doubleheader and teammate Hallie Eller tied a school record as North Scott bumped off No. 1 state-ranked Davenport Assumption twice on Thursday night.

Through a quirk in the schedule, the Mississippi Athletic Conference sweep at Lancer Field precedes a single game non-conference meeting between the two teams today at the North Scott Invitational. Assumption will attempt to get back on the winning track after the 3-0 and 6-5 losses that dropped the Knights to 1-3 in the league and 3-4 overall.

“(Thursday) was like night and day from our games (5-1 and 7-4 setbacks) at Burlington earlier this week,” North Scott coach Dennis Johnson said. “Against Burlington, we played flat and tonight was just the opposite. Tonight was two tough games against a very good Assumption team.”

Haycraft went the distance on the mound in the opener, giving up just two hits while striking out seven and walking nary a batter. In the nightcap, which went eight innings, Haycraft relieved starter Taylor Bender in the seventh, giving up one hit and whiffing three in her two-inning stint.

North Scott (3-3 MAC, 8-4 overall) tallied the winning run in the eighth off losing pitcher Alyson Valainis on a pop-fly single by Brittany Yost, a two-out single by Dana Suiter and Kerrie Liske’s deciding smash hit off the glove of Assumption first baseman Maggie Carlin. That dealt the defeat to Valainis, also the losing pitcher in the opener.

Earlier in the second game, the Lancers scored four runs in the first, highlighted by a long two-run homer over the center-field fence by Eller. It was the 20th career homer by the graduated senior, which ties North Scott’s school record.

In addition to Eller’s blast, Steph Schmidt had a two-run double that pushed the Lancers in front after Assumption had tallied three runs off Bender in the first. The Knights had used a walk, two North Scott errors, a single by Morgan Finn and Carlin’s two-run double.

After the visitors tied the game in the second on a RBI single by Ashley Giganti, the Knights took the lead in the fifth on Valainis’ run-scoring two-bagger. North Scott sent the game into extra innings when Yost clubbed a long drive to left that bounced off the head of outfielder Colette Juarez and over the fence for a home run.

“That’s the way things have been going for us,” Assumption coach Bob Matthys said. “Colette got turned around on the ball and she’s got a lump on her forehead. We’re going through a phase when we’re trying to push across some runs but not coming up with the big hit when we need it.”

That was the case in the opener as the Knights managed only a first-inning single by Giganti, who was erased trying to steal second on a strikeout, and a fifth-inning single by Valainis.

Haycraft was hit on the right thigh by a liner off the bat of Giganti in the opening inning. After gathering herself, she went on to throw a shutout.

“I knew I had to tough it out,” said Haycraft, a sophomore, who wears tape wrapped on her right wrist. “I hit my hip with every pitch, and if I don’t wear the tape, my wrist swells up and I get a rash. It was good to come back with victories against the top-ranked team (in Class 3A) after those losses at Burlington.”

The Lancers snapped the

0-0 tie in the bottom of the sixth on hits by Shari Huber, Eller, Yost and Suiter. Eller’s was a triple that knocked in the first run, with Yost and Suiter getting RBIs for the insurance runs.

Contact the sports desk at (563) 383-2285 or sports@qctimes.com.