The New London High School softball team has certainly found the formula early in the season to beat Oconto Falls.
For the second time in three weeks, the Bulldogs had their bats going and their pitcher at her best. New London tallied nine runs in the first two innings and didn’t ease up, beating Oconto Falls 12-1 in five innings on a cold Monday afternoon at Pleasant View Park.
New London (2-2, 2-2 Bay Conference) also downed Oconto Falls 8-0 in the first game of the season.
“It was 9-1 and they earned nine runs, so be it. But we probably gave them four of five of those runs, and I have a problem with that,” Oconto Falls’ head coach Rochell Otto said. “We’ve just got to clean it up defensively.”
New London lost a lot of luster after winning the WIAA Division 2 state championship last season, graduating nine players. However, the Bulldogs return a solid nucleus of girls who know what it takes to win. Getting a big cushion against Oconto Falls was key for New London.
“That was one of the things we’ve been working on,” New London co-head coach Laura Turner said. “The last couple of games we haven’t scored much in the first couple of innings, and our goal this game was to try and get on the scoreboard in the first one to two.”
After New London scored four first-inning runs, Panthers leadoff hitter Elizabeth Manns – who had two base hits — singled and came around to score on a McKenna Holman hit to make it 4-1.
The Bulldogs jumped on Panthers pitcher McKenna Kussow for five more runs in the second inning on five hits.
Oconto Falls (2-4, 2-4 Bay Conference) could only muster four hits against New London’s number two pitcher Molly O’Connell.
“Molly came in like an ace,” Turner said, in regards to O’Connell’s four strikeout game.
The Panthers was unable to advance a runner past second base following the first inning.
Kussow surrendered 12 hits, three to Alanna Beyer, as New London added two runs in the third and one in the fifth.
“They’re a strong team and they hit hard,” Otto said. “Defensively, we’ve got to play better. McKenna Kussow’s a freshman and she’s going to give up hits, but we can’t give them any, and that’s what we did tonight.”
Despite the loss, Otto will take away some positives from the game as her young team looks to get back on track.
“We had four hits and had two or three line shots,” Otto said. “We threw a person out at home, we hit another cutout and threw a person out at third, so we’re doing those type of things. But we’ve got to do the basic things.”
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