Warriors sweep Hillsboro
Marion High School softball team opened the season Thursday in convincing fashion, sweeping Hillsboro by the score of 2 to 1 in the first game and 3 to 2 in the second.
"I was really impressed with how the girls played for the first games of the season," said coach Charlotte Waner. "They showed great intensity."
She was particularly pleased with defense. The team was good on 88 percent and 93 percent of fielding attempts in the two games.
A big part of the defense came from Megan Moore, who pitched all 14 innings (two seven-inning games) for the Warriors. She recorded 11 strikeouts out of 26 at-bats in the first game and 10 out of 25 in the second.
"She had a great performance to open the season," Waner said.
Waner also was satisfied with the team's response to adversity. Marion was down for most of the first game, and lost a lead in the second, before coming from behind to win.
Waner said the games clearly showed the importance of focusing on the basics — stopping routine grounders and catching routine flyballs kept Marion in the game — and demonstrated a need to improve hitting.
"We batted well enough to win, but that's an area we need to improve," she said. The team batted .200 in the first game and .280 in the second.
Leading hitters in the first game were Emmy Bowers and Heidi Zogelman. Krista Zogelman, Whitney Wear, and Moore scored in the second. Bowers batted 1.000 in the first game, followed by Heidi Zogelman and Nikki Moody, .333 each. Top hitters in the second were Wear, Krista Zogelman, and Moore, who each hit .667.
Krista Zogelman, Moore, Bowers, and Moody each had a double. Bowers had two stolen bases in the first game. Wear and Moore each had two steals in the second.
