In a game that stirred memories of the Hawks’ regional championship a season ago, the Shawano Community High School softball team earned an 11-1 victory over Seymour in five innings Thursday to open the WIAA Division 2 regional tournament at Martzke Sports Complex.
Last year, the Hawks started their regional championship run with a 12-2 win over Clintonville in six innings.
“It’s kind of reflection of last year,” Shawano senior center fielder LaRissa O’Kimosh said. “We’ve got the speed, we’ve got the drive hitters. It’s basically the same team with different people.”
No. 3 Shawano (9-12, 6-9 Bay Conference) will face No. 2 Notre Dame, which dispatched Clintonville 10-1 in five innings Thursday, Tuesday in Green Bay. It’s a rematch of last year’s regional championship game, won by Shawano 11-10.
The Hawks finished early on Thursday with an RBI base hit by O’Kimosh to cap a five-run fifth inning that gave the Hawks the 11-1, 10-run rule win.
“I honestly didn’t think I was going to be the one to hit the game-winning run in,” O’Kimosh said. “I was just going up there to hit and get them around.”
O’Kimosh was 3 for 4 on the day with four RBIs.
Seymour (2-16, 2-14 Bay) ran into pitching trouble in the fifth when relief pitcher Olivia Bluma left the game with a arm injury after pitching one inning of relief. Shawano scored on a bases-loaded walk and a passed ball before Seymour turned to Zoe Moehring, who immediately walked Allison Raddant to reload the bases.
“I felt badly for Seymour. They had a nice second pitcher and she had an arm injury and they had to go to a third pitcher who didn’t have a lot of time to warm up,” Shawano coach Kevin Isaacson said. “That was a challenge for her. It was an unfortunate situation. We did our job and put the bat on the ball.”
Shawano scored twice more on passed balls, before O’Kimosh was set up with a runner in scoring position and the 10-1 lead.
“That’s the way we like to play,” Isaacson said. “Our speed players get on the bases and get around, and our drive hitters get the ball in the outfield. When we do that, we’re a tough team to contend with.”
Nicki Ainsworth led off Shawano’s half of the third inning with a single. She scored on a Courtney Baumann single. Freshman Saige Henning added a two-RBI double to give the Hawks the 3-0 lead.
Seymour got one back on a Taylor Matustak single, but Shawano caught Erin Blohm trying to advance to third to end the inning.
Baumann, who earned the win pitching for Shawano, held strong in a tough fourth inning after Seymour opened with three hits to load the bases with no outs.
“Great kid, she just fights out there,” Isaacson said. “You saw her get tougher when the situation got tough.”
Seymour’s Rebecca Simpson flew out to center field, where O’Kimosh launched a rocket to home plate to move a runner back to third base. Brianna Laabs got a runner out at home on a Sarah Schaltz bunt for the second out, and then Seymour’s lead-off hitter Anna Schenk ground out to end the inning.
“Two ground balls and we’re out of there, that was a big sequence,” Isaacson said.
Baumann allowed one run on seven hits and walked two in five innings of work.
Julie Beck, Raddant and O’Kimosh all had RBI singles in the bottom of the fourth inning to put Shawano up 6-1.
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