Table setters help North Scott softball clean up against North

Font Size:

By Shannon Heaton | Wednesday, June 25, 2008 |

ELDRIDGE, Iowa — Done right, the act of table-setting can wreak havoc on an opposing softball team.

Consider North Scott’s havoc wreaked Monday night. Lancers hitters Kelli Shimp and Shari Huber — batting first and second in the North Scott order — played a major role in turning North every which way, as the Lancers hammered the Wildcats 10-1 and 12-0.

“Kelli and I talk together before we go to the plate about getting things going for the team. Everything we do brings momentum to the team and everyone gets more confident,” Huber said.

“If you can’t get a hit, at least get on base,” Shimp added. “We got a lot of walks, and we scored a lot of runs on passed balls.”

That came first from Shimp and Huber’s ability to get on base and then scamper around the basepaths at will. Shimp had eight plate appearances, getting on base seven times and scoring five times. She also had four hits and three RBIs.

Meanwhile, Huber — in seven plate appearances — reached base six times and scored each time. Team speed proved critical for the Lancers (16-3, 7-3 Mississippi Athletic Conference), who stole nine bases and advanced to second five times, after base hits or walks, or via pitcher indifference because North Scott had a runner on third.

There also was the solid pitching performances of Brie Haycraft (four hits allowed, seven strikeouts and no walks) and Taylor Bender (one hit allowed, five strikeouts in four innings) that kept North (4-11, 1-7 MAC) largely bottled up, save for a Paige Almasi home run in the second inning of the first game.

“We didn’t do anything to beat ourselves tonight,” Lancers coach Dennis Johnson said.

“Our pitchers did a nice job. North’s a dangerous team, but we were able to get up, get ahead and run the bases extremely well. We did the little things well. I don’t think the score reflected the kind of team North has, but things went right for us.”

At the same time, things couldn’t go less right for North pitchers, who gave up 17 walks in 92/3 innings of work, with 10 wild pitches and four passed balls allowing many Lancers runs. The combination allowed North Scott to score 10 times in the first game while driving in just one run.

“Right now, we’re not playing very well. We gave up (17) walks and had two hit by pitches. You can’t do that and be competitive,” North coach Jeff Manders said.

“For some reason, our pitchers could not throw strikes tonight. You can’t put their kids on base, they run the bases too well.”

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