Lady Pirates lose twice
The Prairie Softball team lost a pair of league games this past week. On Thursday, April 16, they lost to Potlatch 10-21 at Lewiston. On Friday, April 17, they lost to Lewis County 9-23, also at Lewiston.
The game against Potlatch was moved from Potlatch to Lewiston’s Sunset Park due to field conditions at Potlatch. The game then was delayed due to the pitching rubber being at men’s softball distance which is about 5 feet further from home than it is supposed to be for girls softball.
Prairie got off to a good start as Audrey Warren led off the game with a double to right. She went to third on a wild pitch and scored when Avery Schacher reached on an error.  Schacher wound up a second on the play and then went to third on a wild pitch. Schacher scored when Erica Schlader beat out an infield single. Schlader then scored when Kenly Forsmann tripled to right. Prairie took a 3-0 lead into the bottom of the first inning.
Prairie’s defense struggled in the bottom of the first with errors on 3 straight plays. A walk and an infield single followed as Potlatch’s first 5 batters all reached base. A sacrifice fly followed then came a 3-run homer. A walk, single and a double followed as Potlatch wound up scoring 8 runs off of Halee Rowland in the first inning.
Prairie had a 2-out rally in the second. Warren reached on an error as did Schacher with Warren scoring on the play. Schacher wound up at second and scored on Schlader’s single to right center. That made it 5-8.
Potlatch added 1 run in the bottom of the second on 2 singles.
In the third Prairie loaded the bases with 2 outs as Zoey Behler reached on a passed ball on a swinging third strike and Bailey Key and Kenna Granger both walked. The Pirates were unable to score though.
Potlatch added 2 more in the bottom of the third on a leadoff walk and a single followed by a sacrifice bunt and a groundout that scored the second run.
Schacher led off the top of the fourth with a single to right and moved to second and then to third on passed balls. Schlader walked and a wild pitch scored Schacher. Potlatch changed pitchers and got an out. Hailey Hanson then drew a walk. A wild pitch scored Schlader. Behler walked then a strikeout ended the inning.
Rowland gave up just an infield single in the bottom of the fourth as Potlatch wasn’t able to score.
In the fifth Prairie scored 3 to get within 1 run. Granger led off with a walk then came a pair of outs. Schlader singled to left center to score Granger. Forsmann then got her second triple of the game to score Schlader. Hanson singled up the middle to score Forsmann and make it 10-11. Behler drew a walk but a strikeout then ended the inning.
Things fell apart for Prairie in the bottom of the fifth as Potlatch came up with 10 runs to end the game on the 10-run mercy rule. They did it with 5 singles, 3 walks, a hit batsman and an error. The game ended on a 2-run single although they didn’t need the second run.
Prairie had 8 hits led by Forsmann who had 2 triples and 2 RBI. Schlader had 3 singles and 3 RBI. Warren had a double. Schacher and Hanson each had a single and an RBI.
Rowland pitch 4 2/3 innings and gave up 21 runs on 13 hits with 6 walks, 1 hit batsman and 1 strikeout.
Prairie    3 2 0 2   3—10   8 8
Potlatch 8 1 2 0 10—21 13 6
The game against Lewis County had been rescheduled from Monday, April 13 to Friday, April 17. It was originally going to be at Cottonwood but due to field conditions at Cottonwood was moved to Airport Park in Lewiston.
Lewis County jumped all over the Pirates with a 10-run first inning. After a strikeout, the Eagles came up with 3 singles, a hit batsman and 2 more singles before a run-scoring groundout. Following that came a single, walk, single, single, double and hit by pitch before Rowland got out of the inning with a groundout.
In the bottom of the first the Pirates tried to come up with a 2-out rally as they loaded the bases on a single by Schlader, a walk to Forsmann and Hanson being hit by a pitch. However a strikeout ended the inning with no runs scored.
Lewis County started the second inning with a walk and a single. They scored a run as Prairie turned an odd double play. A grounder turned into a rundown with the runner on first eventually being put out and then the batter got put out straying off of first. Prairie got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the second. Catherine Seubert was walked leading off and Mikayla Rowland was hit by a pitch. Bailey Key walked to load the bases with 1 out. Warren grounded out, scoring Seubert. Schacher was hit by a pitch to reload the bases. Schlader then grounded out to score Rowland. Forsmann singled to right to score both Schacher and Schlader and make it 4-11.
In the third the Eagles added 3 more runs on 2 walks, 2 singles and an error to make it 4-13. Seubert and Mikayla Rowland both walked to start the bottom of the third. After an out, Warren single to score both baserunners. A groundout advanced Warren to third. Warren scored on a single to left by Schlader to make it 7-14.
Lewis County added a run in the fourth on a single with a passed ball, wild pitch and another passed ball scoring the runner. Behler led off the bottom of the fourth with a single to left. She went to second on a groundout and advanced to third on a passed ball. Behler then scored on a passed ball on strike 3 to Mikayla Rowland as Rowland was put out at first.
The Eagles loaded the bases on walks with no outs to start the fifth. An error scored 1 runner. Another walk scored another. Seubert was brought in to pitch and got a strikeout then hit a batter to score another run. A single scored 2 runs. A walk reloaded the bases. After an out, another single scored another run. Another single added 2 more runs to make it 8-23. After a walk, a pop out ended the inning. In the bottom of the fifth Schacher walked to lead off but was forced at second by Schlader. Forsmann reached on an error with Schlader going to third. Schlader then scored on a wild pitch. That turned out to be the final run of the game as it ended on the 10-run mercy rule.
Prairie had 5 hits led by Schlader who had 2 singles and 2 RBI. Warren had a single and 3 RBI. Forsmann had a single and 2 RBI. Behler had a single.
Rowland pitched 4+ innings and gave up 20 runs on 14 hits with 4 strikeouts, 9 walks and 3 hit batsmen. Seubert pitched 1 inning and gave up 3 runs on 3 hits with 2 strikeouts, 2 walks and 1 hit batsman.
Prairie is now 4-9 on the season and 2-6 in league play.
Lewis County 10 1 3 1 8—23 17 3
Prairie              0 4 3 1 1—  9   5 6