The North Butler softball team capitalized on busy traffic on the basepads and shut down the Warrior’s bats to advance on a 12-2 win in five innings over Rockford in a Class 1A playoff opener on Monday, as aired on 104.9 KLMJ.
Rockford plated the first two runs in the first inning for the early lead. North Butler rallied by batting around in the bottom of the first, scoring four runs for a 4-2 lead. The Bearcats added some insurance in the second on a two RBI single into center field by Alexis Rose. North Butler opened up an eight run lead at 10-2, over the Warriors in the fifth after driving in four more runs.
The Bearcats ended the game early with two runs in fifth including a steal of home by Cora Barnett on a pass ball to seal the win. Kamri Groen found her groove in the circle for the Bearcats from the second inning on, as she sat down 12 of the final 14 batters she faced, and surrendered only two walks in that stretch.
Head Coach Austin Guerrero says Groen stepped up for the challenge and notes how the Bearcats managed their at bats in the win.
“She’s a gamer and she’s stepped up all season long for us, just a freshman, she’s played in a lot of high intensity, high moment games,” says Guerrero. “We knew when the postseason came around, she’s a girl we want on the mound for us. She pitched to contact, that’s what was expected, and we knew she’d step up for the challenge. The approach up at the plate for us is hitting strikes, we don’t want to help out other pitchers. We also go up there ready to hit the ball. Just trusting yourself, and when the pitch is there, hit it hard somewhere. If we have hard contact usually good things happen. You find your way on base and move runners and good things happen.”
Alexis Rose led the Bearcats with four RBI’s. Kamri Groen earned the win in the circle, allowing only one earned run on three hits with seven strikeouts in five innings.
North Butler(5-18) advances to a Class 1A Region 2 quarterfinal where they will travel to Newman Catholic in Mason City on Wednesday.
