Ark Valley News - Valley finishes league with two losses

Cheyenne Blackwood forces a Goddard runner out at second in the opening game April 26.

Valley finishes league with two losses
By Chris Strunk
Last Updated: May 03, 2019

The Valley Center High School softball team ran into a tough Goddard squad on the road April 26 and came home with a pair of Ark Valley Chisholm Trail League II losses.

The Hornets lost 15-0 in the first game and 6-3 in the second. Valley fell to 3-13 overall and finished 3-9 in the league.

The opener with Goddard couldn't have gone worse for the Hornets.

The Lions stretched a 1-0 lead to 7-0 in the second inning and added eight over the next two to end the game on a run-rule.

The Hornets managed just three hits. Emma Anderson had two of them.

Valley Center had runners in scoring position only three times.

On the mound, Anderson gave up all 15 runs; 10 were earned. She walked just two batters.

The Hornets had five errors.

The second game was closer, but the result was the same.

Goddard jumped out to a 3-0 lead before Valley Center scored its first run of the night in the fourth. Goddard answered and then tacked on two more in the fifth.

The Hornets scored two in the sixth, but it wasn't enough.

Kelsey Brunton, Eliza Grady and Macy Ostrom had two hits each. Ostrom recorded two RBI.

Cheyenne Blackwood took the loss. She struck out four, walked five and gave up six hits.

In the fourth, Ostrom reached base on a single and advanced to second on a passed ball.

Mallory Feather hit a grounder to third, which allowed Ostrom to take another base.

Ostrom scored on an error.

Valley's two-run sixth started with back-to-back singles by Brunton and Grady. Ostrom hit a double to center field, scoring Brunton and Grady, but was tagged out trying to take third.

Valley Center will host Newton May 2 and will finish the regular season at Salina South May 3.

Junior varsity — The junior varsity Hornets stopped a four-game losing streak with a pair of wins over Goddard. The Hornets won the first game 18-14 and then poured it on in the second game, winning 27-8. Valley Center improved to 11-6.

In the opener, Kambry Kirk had four hits, while Allie Johnson, Dakota Phillips, Jaylynn Phillips, Keara Kieso and Hannah Roth had two each. Emma Hinds pitched and got the win, striking out two and giving up seven earned runs.

In the second game, Valley Center trailed until the fourth inning, when the Hornets scored five runs. Valley added 16 runs in the fifth and the game ended on a run-rule.

Norah Koehn and Kambry Kirk had three hits each. Rylie Shaffer, Brooklyn Jones and Dakota Phillips had two each. Phillips, Hannah Roth and Shaffer each hit a triple.

Koehn took the win on the mound, striking out five while walking just one.

Goddard 15, Valley Center 0

VC 000 0XX X — 0 3 5

GD 164 4XX X — 15 17 1

W — LeGrand. L — Anderson. 2B — GD: Williams, Martinez, LeGrand. 3B — GD: Yost, Shepherd, Williams.

Goddard 6, Valley Center 3

VC 000 102 0 — 3 6 4

GD 012 120 X — 6 6 1

W — Williams. L — Blackwood. 2B — VC: Ostrom; GD: Shepherd, Williams, Castorena.