Late rally falls a hit short
for Chiefs
By Jim den Hollander
The Wisconsin Dells High School varsity softball team is suddenly finding wins harder to come by. In its latest non-conference test, the Chiefs left the tying and go ahead runs on base in the bottom of the seventh inning and dropped a 6-4 decision to the Dodgeville Dodgers. Despite a solid effort on the mound by sophomore hurler Abbi Delmore, the Chiefs saw the Dodgers move away from them twice in the contest. Trailing 4-1 entering the bottom of the third, the Chiefs grabbed a pair of runs to make it interesting, but the guests grabbed another pair and threatened to blow the game wide open in the fourth. Down to its final turn at the plate, the Chiefs got a leadoff triple that turned into a homer by sophomore Kristin Oines and despite some hits and a couple of walks that loaded the bags, the team was unable to get the winning hit. Oines led off the inning with a what could have been a huge deflating out as she tried to stretch a double into a triple. Oines beat the throw to third, but actually rounded the bag and for a split second she was standing eight field down the base line towards home with the third baseman looking right at her with the ball in hand. A quick and ultimately, good decision for Oines saw her immediately turn and break for the plate while the third baseman lobbed the ball to a player who, until then had been standing right beside Oines. The sophomore went across the plate and the Chiefs appeared to get a lift from a play that some aggressive base running turned a potential disaster into the best possible result. The thrill was short-lived though, a groundout ending the game with all of the base runners on the move. Cassie Kahler, one of the team's seniors who made the trip to Sectionals last season, said the players know where they have to improve — at the plate. For a team that perennially comes into its own in the later games of the season, having weather cancellations effectively compact an already short season is making it tough for that to happen. "It's definitely a lot more difficult than last year," said Kahler after the tough loss. "It's a young team. It would have been harder even if we had been outside a longer period of time; it was still going to be just as hard if not harder." The team hasn't really been blown out of any games this season and key hits at the right time would have the team in a much better situation right now said Kahler. "Our hitting has to get up to snuff," summed up the center fielder. "It's me; it's everyone else; it's a whole team effort. I mean, it's not just one person that's hitting bad, it's everybody." The loss dropped the Chiefs to 4-7 on the season as they head back into the fray against Westfield on Thursday. The Chiefs are a disappointing 3-3 in conference play so far and would like nothing more than to finish the season strong on both the conference and non-conference fronts. Following the contest Thursday, the Chiefs will play against Adams-Friendship Friday then wrap up a five-game week with a pair at a tournament in Baraboo.