YATES CENTER — The Yates Center High softball team ran into a red hot Northeast team on Monday and dropped a couple of games, 14-2 and 13-3.
Northeast, based in Arma, is coming off a Three Rivers League championship title season when they went 18-2 a year ago and returned nearly all of their starting players. It was an eye-opening season opener for a Yates Center squad who is also expected to finish very well this season.
Game one
The Yates Center Wildcats scratched one run across the plate in the first inning and another in the bottom of the fourth to bring the score to 9-2. Yates Center’s Kinley Morrison started in the pitcher’s circle.
Northeast got on the board in the top of the first when Lexi Yarnell scored on a Shelby Underwood reach on error for the early 1-0 advantage.
Callyn Miller got on base and later scored on an Emma Grogg RBI groundout to give Yates Center an early run and knot the game at 1-1.
The third and fourth innings hurt the Wildcats most when the Vikings plated eight runs between the two innings for a 9-1 lead. Northeast’s Ciara Neville put the final touches on the big fourth inning by scoring the ninth run of the game.
“Our girls played well. We had one inning each game that got away from us,” said Yates Center head coach Scott Grogg. “With a lot of young girls in new positions we will continue to improve. I’m not worried about where we will end up. We have a great group of young ladies.”
Grogg then reached base on an error and scored a few batters later to make it a 9-2 game.
The Vikings brought five more runs home in the fifth inning for the 14-2 Wildcat loss.
Game two
The Wildcats were then taken down in their second game by 13-3.
Molly Proper scored the opening run in the first inning before Grogg scored in the third inning and Proper came around to score again in the bottom of the sixth inning. Northeast jumped all over Yates Center’s pitcher, Proper, but not until later in the game.
The Vikings scored one run in the bottom of the second to knot the game at 1-1 before Chasity Young, Liberty Sigman, Nevil and Underwood scored in the top of the fourth for a 5-2 advantage. Underwood scored again in the fifth to make it a 6-2 deficit for Yates Center.
Northeast then brought seven more runs across in the bottom of the sixth inning for the 13-2 final.
