Published: May 28, 2015
Going with her gut
Slinger coach makes the right move
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
SLINGER — Whether Slinger softball coach Tanya Villarreal is
a genius or not is a debate that can be settled later. But sophomore Kaitlyn
Shatswell sure made Villarreal at least think like one.
Shatswell hit a 1-2 pitch with two outs in the bottom of the
sixth to drive in the go-ahead run and Slinger went on to beat visiting West
Bend West, 3-2, in a WIAA Division 1 regional Wednesday.
“Amazing,” Shatswell said when asked what it was like
standing on first base after driving in the goahead run.
It was only Shatswell’s second varsity game. She played the
rest of this season on junior varsity.
But in practice Tuesday, Villarreal saw something with the
way Shatswell swung the bat in practice.
In between innings, the Owls’ bench players typically jog
down to the outfield fence and back to stay loose. When Shatswell passed
Villarreal who was in the third-base coaches box, she was told if Hannah
Strupp’s spot came up in the inning, she’d pinch hit.
Villarreal made the move not just because Strupp was 0 for 3
in the game at that point. It was a hunch on her part based on what she saw in
practice Tuesday.
“I just had a good feeling about it,” Villarreal said.
After fouling off a 1-2 pitch, Shatswell got set in the
batters box and waited for a pitch from West’s Brooke Brockman.
Shatswell perfectly placed a ground ball just beyond the
reach of Spartans second baseman to bring in Katie Rongstad.
“I was kind of nervous,” Shatswell said. “But I knew she put
me in there because she had confidence in me. I knew I had to get the job
done.”
Rongstad got the rally going with a two-out hit herself, a
single to left.
“She came up and didn’t let the pressure get to her,”
Villarreal said of Shatswell. “That’s huge. You look for those kids; no matter
the situation, they rise above it.”
Alyssa Hicken took care of the Spartans’ offense in the
seventh, facing the 1-2-3 hitters, including Ashley Hall who had a big game at
the plate.
Hall hit a two-run opposite field home run over the
leftfield fence in the top of the first inning to give West a 2-0 lead. She
added a double in the third and a single in the fifth.
Hall popped out to second, hoping to extend the game and
possibly get a triple to complete the cycle.
Hicken retired the final seven batters she faced after
scattering five hits in the first 4 2/3 innings pitched.
Hicken got the victory in the circle. She pitched the
complete game, allowed two runs on six hits, walked three and struck out eight.
At one point, Hicken struck out four straight Spartans batters.
Her counterpart, Brockman, gave West a chance to pull off
the upset.
The junior right-hander pitched six innings, allowed three
runs on 10 hits, walked two and struck out three.
The 10 hits is a bit misleading as four of them were
bloopers just out of the reach of the Spartans defense.
“Brockman pitched a heck of a game,” West coach Dallas
Wodsedalek said. “She really did. She made very few mistakes, she hit her
spots, she was in complete control.
“I’m proud of her effort.”
Villarreal wasn’t worried to fall behind to West early on.
When she began to worry was when her offense wasn’t responding to
opportunities. Twice, the Owls left runners at second and third base, including
doing so in the fifth with one out.
“I thought we were going to score; there was no doubt in my
mind,” Villarreal said.
To end the fifth, West’s Gwen Hovorka ran down a sharply hit
ball and made the catch in the gap.
Unfortunately for West, it didn’t respond in the top of the
sixth as it went down in order. And in the bottom of the sixth, Slinger took
the lead for the first time and held on.
“We missed a couple signs throughout the game and in that
inning was one of them,” Villarreal said. “That’s very frustrating. This late in
the season, you can’t be missing signs.”
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