BURLINGTON, IOWA -- When the weather outside feels like winter, you can still play softball indoors. That's what the Ellsworth Panthers experienced over the weekend as they opened the 2022 spring season with four games inside at the Fun City Complex. ECC had a rough outing to start things off, losing to Southeastern CC, 16-0, in five innings. They quickly recovered, though, to knock off North Platte (Neb.), 11-3, in Saturday's second game. ECC came from behind for a 5-3 decision against Olney Central (Ill.) to begin play Sunday, before getting blanked by McCook (Neb.), 7-0.
Ellsworth pitching struggled in the SCC contest, walking 12 batters and the Blackhawks, after scoring 3 runs in each of the first two innings, put up a 10-spot in the 3rd. The Panthers had only 3 hits -- a double by Gintare Paskocimaite and singles by Allyson Sparks and Nevaeh Dice. Delaney Vetter started and control problems limited her to only 17 batters, 8 of whom she walked. Nicole Coppess and Abbigail Harding each threw an inning and 2/3 in relief. Jocelyn Hartley pitched a scorelss inning to close things out.
ECC got the bats going in the next game pounding out 11 hits and drawing 13 walks. After North Platte scored twice in the 1st inning, the Panthers answered with 3 in the bottom of the inning, added a run in the 2nd, 2 in the 4th, 1 in the 5th and ended it with 4 in the 6th. Paskocimaite led the offensive attack, going 4-for-5 with an RBI, a run scored and a stolen base. Grace Gordon and Lauren Brennan had two hits each and Alejandra Rodriguez, Meghan Danielson and Maggie Braniff also had hits. Gordon, Brennan and Rodriguez scored two runs apiece and Braniff picked up 3 RBIs and Gordon and Rodriguez 2. Dice and Rodriguez walked three times and Braniff twice. Cheyanne Collins started in the circle and permitted 3 runs in 5 innings with 3 Ks. Brennan threw a scoreless inning and fanned 2.
After jumping ahead with 2 runs in the bottom of the 2nd in the game with Olney Central, ECC saw Olney tally 3 runs in the 3rd inning. Ellsworth then went ahead with a 2-run 4th and added an insurance run in the 6th. The Panthers used 5 pitchers -- Brennan started and worked 2 innings, Coppess and Harding combined for 2 more innings, Asa Kesinger contributed a scoreless frame with 2 strikeouts and Vetter saved the win, fanning 3 in her 2 innings. Sparks had a 3-for-4 game and drove in 3 runs. Paskocimaite knocked in the other 2 runs and doubled twice. Dice picked up 2 hits and Gordon, Brennan and Rodriguez 1 each. Gordon also scored 2 times.
Ellsworth, though, ended the weekend the way they started, getting shut out. They had 7 hits against McCook but couldn't get on the scoreboard. Vetter worked 5 innings as the starter and struck out 7. Collins finshed up.
Ellsworth coach Nate Forsyth said it was nice to get the 2022 schedule underway. "It was good to finally play. We did some things well and some things not as well. We know what we need to work on to get ready for our games in Kansas City," Forsyth concluded. The Panthers will go to the Kansas City area to take on Metropolitan CC for a pair of games Mar. 12 and will battle Kansas City Kansas CC in a doubleheader the next day.