Having held West Bend West Division I recruits Mia Buske and Ava Thelen to a single each, Homestead softball should have fancied its chances on the road Wednesday.
The rest of the Spartans piled up a dozen hits as the hosts took a 10-1 North Shore win. West (12-2, 11-1 NSC) stayed on course for Tuesday鈥檚 showdown with league-leading Cedarburg (13-1, 12-0) while the Highlanders dropped to 5-8 and 4-8.
"We got contributions up and down the lineup," West coach Ken Dischler said. "We had six different kids with an RBI."
Homestead struck first with two out after working a number of quality at-bats. Caroline Bell reached on an infield single in the midst of three full-count walks drawn, the last of which went to Sadie Ferugson and brought in a run.
West starter Lindsay Sandleback got a strikeout to get out of the inning, which required 41 pitches. She worked around an error in the second inning with the aid of a diving, snow-cone catch by center fielder Mackenzie Rolf to rob Anna Faucett.
"Lindsay was close on a lot of pitches," Dischler said. "Any time you throw 40 pitches in an inning it鈥檚 usually not good so she was fortunate to work out of it.
"Homestead fouled off some good pitches. Lindsay did a good job of settling down after that."
Rolf singled to lead off the West second and tied the game on Morgan Stortz鈥檚 sacrifice fly to right. The Spartans blew the game open with a five-run third inning, started by Sandleback鈥檚 single. Rolf鈥檚 RBI single was followed by a two-run single by Karissa Jenz two batters later. After two more singles, the damage could have been worse but Buske鈥檚 drive to center was directly into the wind, resulting in only a sacrifice fly.
Buske and shortstop Paige Guse kept the Highlanders off the bases in the fourth with defensive gems. Buske fully extended her dive to snare a foul pop from Lauren Faucett and Guse threw out Nyla Seltz from one knee.
鈥淲hen they had a couple of threats, we stayed focused and made the plays we needed to,鈥 Dischler said.
Guse then doubled with one out in the bottom of the frame and was singled in by Rolf, which was her third hit of the game. Sophia Otto came on the work the sixth for Homestead and Sandleback greeted her with a triple.
Thelen鈥檚 infield single brought in a run and Guse then singled in Thelen. An error allowed the final run for the Spartans to score.
After the rocky first inning, Sandleback settled in to allow just four hits the rest of the way while striking out eight. Jenz, a senior with just 13 at-bats entering the contest, finished with three hits on Senior Day.
As an indication of the depth of the West lineup, she replaced Breleigh Ustruck, who is hitting .500.
鈥淚t was Senior Day and Breleigh understood,鈥 Dischler said. 鈥淜arissa came through. It鈥檚 a good problem to have.鈥