BLANCHARDVILLE - Despite the cold and snow, the Vikings gutted out a 12-9 win over New Glarus Thursday thanks to a solid performance by senior pitcher Nina McKeon.
McKeon had to battle for the strike zone early on, and defensive miscues added to Pecatonica's 8-4 deficit after the top of the third inning, but she settled down and locked down the Glarner Knights.
"It was cold, but I feel like our team has improved a lot this year and I believe in them and they believe in me," McKeon said. "We didn't have the best record last year and I wanted to make a difference for our team and our school. I thought about that a lot during the game."
Offensively the young Vikings started putting bats onto balls and took advantage of some New Glarus miscues. But the biggest at-bat of the day came in the bottom of the second.
Trailing 3-2 with a runner on first, McKeon stood in the left-handed batters box and twice swung and missed on running slap attempts. Down 0-2 in the count, she switched to the right side of the plate and belted the next pitch from Knights pitcher Riley Parker over the fence in left center for a two-run home run.
"At first, I just thought it was going to the fence, and then I realized it went over and I was surprised," McKeon said. "I know that I'm a big contributor to this team and a lot of the girls look up to me, so that (home run) I feel helped them out a lot."
The hit electrified the Vikings bench, which scored in every inning.
"We come out a little dead in the beginning of our games, and we're really trying to work on that," Pecatonica co-coach Jeni Freiburger said. "So yeah, that (hit) sparked us up a little bit."
Pecatonica scored two in both the first and the second, three in the third off of three hits and two errors, one in the fourth, four in the fifth and two more in the bottom of the sixth.
"We've seen a lot of improvement on defense, batting and just all around," Pecatonica co-coach Cara Goninen said.
New Glarus opened the top half of the first scoring three runs thanks to walks and wild pitches. The biggest innings for the Knights was the top of the third. New Glarus got three straight RBI hits, which included a three-RBI double by Parker.
"We didn't give up, and that's what I saw. We kept fighting to the end," Freiburger said.
Trailing 14-9 with two outs and nobody on in the seventh, the Knights did not go down quietly. McKenzie Keehn tripled down the left field line and then Abby and Alivia Palmer each walked to load the bases. But once again McKeon locked in on the batter and forced a groundout to end the game.
"They're not quitters, that's for sure," New Glarus coach Myken Daeda said. "Batting we new was going to be our
biggest struggle because we are so young. But we made a lot of errors too on defense. If we could have prevented that, it would have been a different story. It wasn't a bad game overall."
Daeda said her senior hurler struggled early on finding the strike zone.
"She tried a few different pitches up to see where the strike zone was. She was struggling a little bit finding the strike zone and there is nothing we can do about that. I had a little talk with her on the side and she bounced back a bit," Daeda said. "The weather doesn't help either."
The game was 38 degrees at the start and a steady stream of snow flurries started in the third inning and continued to the postgame handshake.
"It's a good learning experience," Daeda said.
Pecatonica's next game is scheduled for Monday at Lake Mills, while New Glarus is now off until an April 12 date with Belleville.
McKeon had to battle for the strike zone early on, and defensive miscues added to Pecatonica's 8-4 deficit after the top of the third inning, but she settled down and locked down the Glarner Knights.
"It was cold, but I feel like our team has improved a lot this year and I believe in them and they believe in me," McKeon said. "We didn't have the best record last year and I wanted to make a difference for our team and our school. I thought about that a lot during the game."
Offensively the young Vikings started putting bats onto balls and took advantage of some New Glarus miscues. But the biggest at-bat of the day came in the bottom of the second.
Trailing 3-2 with a runner on first, McKeon stood in the left-handed batters box and twice swung and missed on running slap attempts. Down 0-2 in the count, she switched to the right side of the plate and belted the next pitch from Knights pitcher Riley Parker over the fence in left center for a two-run home run.
"At first, I just thought it was going to the fence, and then I realized it went over and I was surprised," McKeon said. "I know that I'm a big contributor to this team and a lot of the girls look up to me, so that (home run) I feel helped them out a lot."
The hit electrified the Vikings bench, which scored in every inning.
"We come out a little dead in the beginning of our games, and we're really trying to work on that," Pecatonica co-coach Jeni Freiburger said. "So yeah, that (hit) sparked us up a little bit."
Pecatonica scored two in both the first and the second, three in the third off of three hits and two errors, one in the fourth, four in the fifth and two more in the bottom of the sixth.
"We've seen a lot of improvement on defense, batting and just all around," Pecatonica co-coach Cara Goninen said.
New Glarus opened the top half of the first scoring three runs thanks to walks and wild pitches. The biggest innings for the Knights was the top of the third. New Glarus got three straight RBI hits, which included a three-RBI double by Parker.
"We didn't give up, and that's what I saw. We kept fighting to the end," Freiburger said.
Trailing 14-9 with two outs and nobody on in the seventh, the Knights did not go down quietly. McKenzie Keehn tripled down the left field line and then Abby and Alivia Palmer each walked to load the bases. But once again McKeon locked in on the batter and forced a groundout to end the game.
"They're not quitters, that's for sure," New Glarus coach Myken Daeda said. "Batting we new was going to be our
biggest struggle because we are so young. But we made a lot of errors too on defense. If we could have prevented that, it would have been a different story. It wasn't a bad game overall."
Daeda said her senior hurler struggled early on finding the strike zone.
"She tried a few different pitches up to see where the strike zone was. She was struggling a little bit finding the strike zone and there is nothing we can do about that. I had a little talk with her on the side and she bounced back a bit," Daeda said. "The weather doesn't help either."
The game was 38 degrees at the start and a steady stream of snow flurries started in the third inning and continued to the postgame handshake.
"It's a good learning experience," Daeda said.
Pecatonica's next game is scheduled for Monday at Lake Mills, while New Glarus is now off until an April 12 date with Belleville.
