Lady Generals Ride Kolling’s Grand Slam To 6-3 Win Over Lady Devils

BY SCOTT CALHOUN — MIRROR SPORTS
Anthony Wayne defeated host Springfield 6-3 in the first of the teams’ two key Northern Lakes League meetings last Wednesday.
On pace to set the state record for team home runs in a season, the Lady Generals relied on the long ball.
Senior Sam Kolling had the big blow with a third-inning grand slam, following her first homer of the season, which she hit the day before on her 18th birthday in a makeup victory over Otsego.
Senior Gabrielle Chartier also made a long-distance splash with her first home run of the season to give AW 12 team homers on the year.
“It took us a while to find what we are looking for,” Kolling said, “but now we’ve gotten comfortable and we’re starting to produce.”
Springfield sophomore starting pitcher Ashlyn Michalak ended up with the raw end of the deal. She was shelled for 12 hits and gave up all six earned runs to the Generals, including the two homers. Michalak struck out three Lady Generals.
AW went with freshman Emily Kurfis in the road start and got a complete-game victory out of her. Kurfis surrendered six hits, a walk and two earned runs and fanned five Blue Devils.
The Generals took the lead in the second inning and fended off the Devils in the latter innings.
Senior shortstop Becky Gill led off the second with a line single to right, and sophomore Dani Haley plated her with a groundball double that journeyed down the left-field line. Haley was then thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a triple.
The 1-0 tilt stuck until the top of the third.
AW senior catcher Andrea Skinner led off with a safe reach on a fielding error, senior Michelle Manley followed with a bunt single and Chartier loaded the bases by singling to left.
That’s when Kolling stepped in with no outs and drove Michalak’s first offering over the right-center fence for the grand slam, running the score to 5-0 Anthony Wayne.
Springfield struck back in the fourth. Senior Kaela Alexander delivered a two-out RBI single on a weird infield hop past Gill at short. A passed ball on a throw to the plate allowed sophomore Krista Haley to score the second Blue Devils run.
Springfield trailed 5-2 after four innings, but Chartier immediately kicked in Anthony Wayne’s sixth run by bopping a lead-off homer to left off Michalak to start the fifth.
In the bottom of the frame, the Devils were in business to get closer with runners on second and third and one out, following a great sacrifice bunt by senior catcher Meagan Price, but two outs followed to end the threat.
Sophomore outfielder Fayth Atkins came through with a two-out RBI ground single in the sixth to bring the Blue Devils to within 6-3, but Kurfis retired the next four batters in a row to wrap up the win.

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Anthony Wayne Hardballers Improve To 15-2, Stay Unbeaten In NLL

BY SCOTT CALHOUN — MIRROR SPORTS
The 2008 Anthony Wayne baseball team is having one of the best seasons in program history.
In a three-game string of wins over Northern Lakes League foe Southview and non-league power Clay, the Generals showed their might.
Host AW waxed the NLL-contending Cougars 8-1 before a BCSN viewing audience on Friday and then swept the district champion Eagles 5-3 and 10-4 in a Saturday twinbill in Whitehouse.
The wins sent the currently 12th-ranked Generals to 15-2 overall on the season and kept them unblemished in the NLL at 6-0.
Against the Cougars, junior Mike Frank pitched the latest gem by the Generals deep and talented staff.
He hurled six innings of four-hit baseball that saw Southview gain only an unearned run in the sixth after Anthony Wayne had already built a commanding 8-0 lead.
Frank fanned four Cougars and walked none in picking up the victory.
The Generals jumped out on top with four runs in the bottom of the first inning, highlighted by a two-out RBI single by catcher Josh Ward and singles from junior Aaron Keyer and senior Josh Stidham.
Everyone in the AW lineup got an at-bat in the first inning.
In the second, Stidham promoted the big-bang theory with a one-out, two-run shot down the left-field line as the Generals increased their lead to 7-0.
Keyer put on a base-running exhibition in the fifth. After getting on, he stole three bases in a row, including home on a play pre-planned with coach Mark Nell.
As the Southview pitcher threw a pickoff attempt to first, Keyer raced home from third and beat the sequential attempt there to pick up Anthony Wayne’s eighth run.
The Cougars’ unearned score in the sixth turned out to be inconsequential, and senior Nate Sherman hurled a scoreless seventh inning of relief to wrap up the win.
Keyer finished 2-for-4 with the three stolen bases, Stidham was 2-for-4 with the home run and three RBI and Ward went 2-for-2 with an RBI.
AW 5, Clay 3
Against Clay, sophomore starting pitcher Greg Buckley and the Generals fell behind the Eagles 3-0 in the second inning of the first game of the doubleheader, only to erase that deficit for the 5-3 victory.
Keyer scored senior Ryan Chipka with an RBI double in the third to cut into Clay’s 3-0 edge, but the Generals continued to struggle against Eagles starting pitcher Adam O’Shea.
That remained the theme until the sixth, when the Generals picked up four runs and took over the contest.
Keyer and senior leftfielder Jordan Hertzfeld both reached by error to start off the frame, and then Stidham plated Keyer with a bloop single to make it 3-2.
Buckley struck out next, but senior third baseman Frank Nagle’s RBI single tied the score at 3-3, and the go-ahead run came in on the cleats of Stidham on an Eagles passed ball.
A misplayed fly ball to center later in the inning scored Nagle for the 5-3 insurance tally.
Sherman picked up the save in the seventh inning.
Keyer was 1-for-3 with the RBI double and Nagle 1-for-3 with three RBI.
AW 10, Clay 4
In the second game, senior pitcher Sam Gothke won in his first start of the season but gave up four earned runs on eight hits in the process.
Fortunately for Gothke, the Generals jumped out to a 10-0 lead before Clay could muster any offensive damage.
Nagle crushed a two-run homer and finished 2-for-2.
Deuces were wild for Hertzfeld, who went 2-for-2 with two RBI and was 2-for-2 in stolen base attempts.
Sophomore Jordan Schwerer took over for Gothke with two outs in the fifth and pitched brilliantly in relief. He was perfect with three strikeouts in 2-1/3 innings of work.

These are a couple of articles that ran in The Mirror Newspaper.

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