One inning Marion’s downfall in conference softball loss

The Marion High School softball team came up on the wrong end of a 12-1 Central Wisconsin Conference-North Division game against Manawa on May 12 in Marion.

Marion and Manawa were locked in a tight game — with the visitors up 2-1 — before Manawa erupted for six runs in the fifth inning. Manawa added four more runs in the sixth to reach the 10-run rule and end the contest.

In the fifth inning, it wasn’t defensive mistakes that cost the Mustangs. Instead, it was tough luck, with Manawa seemingly finding every opening in Marion’s defense.

“Manawa can hit the ball and they hit the ball well tonight. They hit the gaps,” said Marion coach Jenny Korth. “We were playing really good defense, but they hit the gaps and there wasn’t really a whole lot we could do to get that under wraps then.”

“They got their hits where they needed to and strung them together,” the coach added.

Manawa looked poised to run away with the game early, with two of the first three batters coming around to score, but Marion pitcher Morgan Schwartz was able to limit the damage by striking out a batter and inducing a flyout to strand a couple more runners.

Schwartz settled in from there, facing just one over the minimum across the next three innings.

In the fifth frame, only one Manawa batter walked. The big hit in the inning was a three-run inside-the-park homer.

The big inning got to Schwartz in the sixth, with a couple walks leading to the crooked number.

Marion had a fair share of baserunners in the contest, but was only able to plate a single run in the fourth. Eden Brennan singled to lead off that frame and then stole second. A passed ball moved her to third before a wild pitch allowed her to cross home.

Dacotah Yonker walked to lead off the game for the Mustangs and then stole second, but she was eventually stranded on base.

Karlie Faehling walked and Kelsey Zillmer singled for Marion in the second before being left on base.

Hailey Krueger was Marion’s other baserunner in the contest, reaching on an error in the third. She was never able to move up a base after a strikeout and groundout.

Despite the tough outcome, coach Korth hoped the team would appreciate being in second place in the conference standings. The players did just that.

“I think it’s because we started off the season good,” said Yonker. “So then we were like, ‘oh my gosh, we have to do good throughout.’ And we have been. We’ve been doing really good because we enjoy being here and doing this and that helps a lot.”

“I think no matter what it’s awesome,” said Brennan. “With me being a senior, I haven’t been in many sports where we were up to the top. We were never really that good, so to finally say we were actually almost No. 1 at something feels above and beyond, it feels awesome.”

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