Wildcats Win Home Round-Robin Tournament

Durant’s Hannah Happ gets the force out at second base and looks to fire to first to try for a double play during the Wildcats weekend home round robin tournament. Durant beat both New London and 1A state ranked Calamus-Wheatland last Saturday to improve to 6-2. Photo by Ryan Stonebraker. 

By Ryan Stonebraker

Sports Editor, Tipton Conservative

DURANT — The Durant Wildcats extended their win streak to four games after winning two contests Saturday, June 3 at the first of two round-robin tournaments this year.  There, the Wildcats beat 1A #15 Calamus-Wheatland 6-0 and New London 5-0.  The Cal-Wheat win was the Wildcats third victory over a ranked team this season to date.  The Wildcats improved to 6-2 with the wins.

Against the Warriors, Durant needed a 4-run fifth to break the game open.  Kamryn Meyer was the winning pitcher after pitching a complete game shutout where she struck out eight, walked two and gave up four hits.

Durant had 8 hits in the game, two each from Hannah Happ and Cathy Ralfs while Ruby Kappeler, Aubrey Werthmann, Haleigh Carnes and Kelly Alexander each had a hit in the game.  Ralfs drove in three runs and Kappeler had a RBI, walk and stole two bases.

In game two, Jenna Lawson scattered four hits in a 5-0 shutout victory.  Lawson did not issue a walk and struck out six batters.

Durant had 11 hits in the win by six of their players.  Their quartet of seniors accounted for 9 of those hits.  Aubrey Werthmann had a three-hit game for the second straight game.  Cathy Ralfs, Haleigh Carnes and Kelly Alexander each had two hits.  Werthmann, Ralfs, Kamryn Meyer, Alexander and Paige Werthmann each had RBI’s in the game.

Durant third baseman Haleigh Carnes puts the ball in play during a home game recently.  Photo by Ryan Stonebraker.

Wildcats Smash state ranked Cougars 14-1

CASCADE — The Durant softball team stayed unbeaten in River Valley Conference play with a 14-1 win at Cascade last Thursday.  The #5 Wildcats got the best of the #15 Cascade in a class 2A Top-15 showdown last Thursday.  There, the Wildcats scored all 14 runs in the final three innings of the game.

Kamryn Meyer turned in her second gem of a RVC start while getting the win.  Meyer improved to 2-0 in the RVC with the win.  Meyer pitched seven innings, scattered three hits and gave up one run.  Meyer recorded 11 strikeouts making it back-to-back RVC starts with double digit strikeout totals.

Cascade scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the third inning.  The Wildcats had an error that allowed the first run of the game to score in the inning.  The 1-0 score held until the top of the fifth inning.

Durant batted around in the top of the fifth and scored four runs on five hits.  Ruby Kappeler started the run in the fifth with a one-out single and advanced to third on a Hannah Happ single.  She would later score on a Cascade error to tie the game at 1-1.  Happ scored on a RBI single by Mallory Warner.  Cathy Ralfs, Kamryn Meyer and Haleigh Carnes followed with singles of their own scoring Warner and Rals to put the score at 4-1.

In the  Wildcats five-run sixth, Durant had six hits in the inning.  Kappeler, Werthmann, Warner, Ralfs, Carnes and Kelly Alexander had hits in the inning.

The the Wildcats five-run seventh, Durant had five hits in the inning.  Kappeler, Happ, Warner, Alexander and Jenna Lawson collected hits in the inning.

Durant had 23 hits in the game with every batter in the starting line-up getting at least two hits.  Ruby Kappeler, Hannah Happ, Aubrey Werthmann, Mallory Warner and Meyer all had three hits in the game.  Cathy Ralfs, Haleigh Carnes, Kelly Alexander and Jenna Lawson each had two hits.

Werthmann had 3 RBI’s while Ralfs, Meyer, Carnes and Alexander each had 2 RBI’s.

Hailey Hannan was the losing pitcher after working into the sixth inning.  She gave up 10 runs on 15 hits.  Laura Kremer pitched 1 2/3 innings in relief.  Lisa Tucker, Bailey Clemens and Kremer each had a hit.