Milford-Cissna Park’s comeback bid comes up short to Oakwood

MILFORD – Milford-Cissna Park softball coach Alyse Morefield was the first to admit the team struggled out of the gate in Wednesday’s home game against Oakwood.

The Bearcats gave up four, six and three runs in the first three innings – eight earned – to fall into an early 13-4 rut they just never crawled out of. Despite putting up a strong offensive fight and getting locked in on the defensive side and in the pitching circle, the Bearcats rallied back but came up short by a 17-12 final.

After a surging 6-1 start to the season, the Bearcats have come back to earth, sitting at 7-4 and 1-2 in the Vermillion Valley Conference. Oakwood won for the fourth time in its past five games to improve to 7-7-1, 3-1.

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Milford-Cissna Park's Lillie Harris, right, fields a throw at second and looks to tag an Oakwood runner during a game at Milford Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (Mason Schweizer)

“I’m happy with how they finished the game, for sure,” Morefield said. “That was important. We take away those first three innings, it’s a totally different game.”

Beginning in the fourth inning, where she sat the Comets down 1-2-3 on three consecutive plays to shortstop Addison Lucht, Bearcats pitcher Kami Muehling settled in from the middle of the game on, allowing four runs (two earned) on four hits and three walks in the final four frames.

That allowed the Bearcats go from close to a 10-run rule loss to getting the potential tying run in the hole in the seventh as the offense found a rhythm and drew six walks from Comets pitcher Irene Rangel.

The top half of the lineup continued its seasonlong tear, including multiple hits from three of the top four hitters in the lineup. Leadoff hitter Jossalin Lavicka went 2 for 3 with two walks, three runs scored and a pair of RBIs. Muehling had two hits, runs and RBIs apiece while drawing a walk from the two-hole. Cleanup hitter Lillie Harris was 2 for 5 with two RBIs and a run.

Northwestern commit Addison Lucht doubled, walked twice and scored twice in the three-spot. As teams continue to work around Lucht, Morefield said that other Bearcats have had to step up and make them pay for their walks, which is something Harris did out of the four-hole Wednesday.

“Especially now that this is her third year in the conference, teams know her and they’ve been putting her on a lot more,” Morefield said of Lucht. “ … The batters behind her have really had to step up, and for the most part they’ve really followed through."

And as good as the top of the order was for the Bearcats, they couldn’t get all those opportunities without the bottom of the order coming through on a couple of occasions. Six-hitter Sydney Seyfert and seven-hitter Evie Niehbur each had RBI hits and scored a pair of runs, proof to Morefield that one of their main points of emphasis early in the season started showing later in Wednesday’s game.

“We’ve just been trying to work with them on taking better at-bats, especially the bottom of the lineup, finding a way to put the ball in play and make the defense work,” Morefield said. “Which they did get better at.”

With Lavicka the team’s only senior and Lucht, Seyfert and Harris the only juniors, the Bearcats are relying on new faces to continue the success of a program that went a combined 37-13 the past two seasons. And although Wednesday’s game went on the wrong side of the win-loss column, Morefield’s been seeing those younger players largely find success in their new roles.

“It’s been good,” Morefield said. “We’re a really young team, so we’re just trying to work out where everyone’s playing, get the right mindset going into varsity softball.”

The Bearcats will look to get back on track when they visit Chrisman at 4:30 p.m. Monday.