Prep softball: Big first inning not enough for Logan Neblock, Genoa-Kingston against Winnebago

GENOA – The first four batters for Genoa-Kingston scored Thursday in a Big Northern Conference softball game against Winnebago, but after that, runs were hard to come by for the Cogs.

The four-run lead didn’t last, as the Indians tied the game in the seventh and took the lead for the first time in the eighth for a 6-5 win.

The defense for the Cogs (7-13, 5-7 BNC) was near-perfect early on, but starting in the sixth all the hustle plays and diving catches became miscommunications and near-miss bloops.

The Indians (3-7, 3-6) scored three in the sixth to pull within 5-4. They chased G-K starter Kiki Mitchell after she gave up a double and an RBI single. Reese Tomlinson came in with a 5-2 lead but gave up two more runs on three hits – the Indians had only six hits in five-plus innings against Mitchell.

After a leadoff single in the seventh, Swan brought Mitchell back in to pitch, but a hit, walk and error brought the tying run home.

“I think we got to that point, everyone is fighting hard for the ball, but maybe lacked a little communication there,” Swan said. “I just think we lost that edge we had defensively a little bit.”

In the eighth, No. 9 hitter Kaylee Finnan singled to start the inning. She was the third player to bat in that spot in the game for the Indians. She came around to score on an error and a fielder’s choice by Reese Erdhal.

In Mitchell’s first stint, she allowed three runs in five innings, striking out two. In her second stint, she pitched two innings, allowing two hits and one run, unearned. She struck out two more.

“Kiki pitched superstrong,” Swan said. “She pitched solid through five. In that fifth I thought they were starting to get on it, so let’s do something a little different. Defensively, I think if we had been able to stay strong behind Reese as we did behind Kiki in the innings prior, we would have been good.”

The Cogs capitalized on some rough Winnebago defense in the first, when the Indians dropped two infield pop-ups to the first two batters in the G-K lineup. After a walk to load the bases, Logan Neblock ripped a double to empty the bases, then scored on an error.

The Indians got on the board in the second, but the Cogs answered to push the lead to 5-1 on Neblock single that scored Christine Venditti, who reached on a double.

Neblock was 3 for 4 as the Cogs had seven hits in the game, but only two after the third against Veronica Gilley-Amdal, who pitched all eight innings. Neblock had the Cogs’ only multihit game off Gilley-Amdal.

“We had some trouble with a couple of those calls, but she adjusted to the umpire back there, and she had a great day,” Winnebago coach Annie Getschel said.

The game had a few oddities in it. Not only did Mitchell have the chance to get a save and a win in the same game, but the Cogs had to take an automatic out in their lineup starting in the sixth.

Second baseman Carly Kline was hurt on the field in the top of the inning, and the Cogs were out of players to use other than their flex player. That led to an automatic out from the leadoff spot in the sixth, and it also meant when No. 9 hitter Reagan Tomlinson came to the plate in the bottom of the eighth with two outs, she had to homer or otherwise score on that at-bat.

“Because we had that injury, my DP/flex – they’re like married, right – so I wasn’t able to substitute her in for that player, and we didn’t have any players on the bench,” Swan said. “So unfortunately we had to go with eight there offensively. It was the worst possible moment for them not to be a batter there.”