Kimball softball begins its 25th season

By Gary Riess, Coach
In 1977, the Kimball School District added girls softball to its extracurricular schedule and now, 25 years later, the 2002 season is finally underway. Coach Gary Riess has been here from the beginning and enters his 25th season as varsity coach. The JV squad this year has co-coaches in ex-players Janelle Vogel and Rhonda Landwehr. Joe Stangle and Barry Strand coach eighth and seventh grades respectively.

After almost a month of indoor practice the 2002 softball season got underway on April 15 against HLW-W. Because of the inclement spring weather, the first game had been scheduled for April 2, the Cubs were forced to play five games last week. The Cubs played HLW on Monday, EVW on Tuesday, Rockford on Friday, and a doubleheader on Saturday against Paynesville and ACGC. Kimball opens the season 1-4 after the first week.

Monday’s opener was played in extreme heat but it was the pitchers and not the hitters that were hot. Kimball’s Jenny Gully and the Lakers’ Kelly Moe combined for 14 strikeouts and only one walk. HLW benefited early, scoring three unearned runs in the first, and late scoring another three unearned runs in the seventh. In the five innings in between, the score was 2-1 in favor of HLW. Kimball was lead at the plate by Tammy Kuechle, who was 3-4 and scored the lone Kimball run on an RBI single from Brandy Stuve. Gully went the distance on the mound allowing only two earned runs while striking out seven and walking one.

Tuesday was another warm outing and Gully continued her early-season pitching mastery, going seven innings, allowing three hits and no walks. Unfortunately, the Eagles used two of those hits in the sixth inning to go along with a double steal and a ground out to score two runs. The Cubs could manage only one score, when Christy Pladson was driven home by Jodine Lemke’s double. The 1-0 Kimball lead didn’t hold up, and the Cubs were nipped by the Eagles 2-1. Jodine Lemke was 3-4, with two doubles and Amanda Linn was 2-4 with a double.

Rockford, the defending CMC champions, came to Kimball on Friday, as did the cold weather, and showed why they are among the conference favorites. They handled the Cubs by a
7-0 score by banging out 11 hits to score twice in the first, once in the second, twice in the third, and two more in the seventh. Meanwhile, the Rockford pitching and defense was stifling the Kimball attack. Rockford’s Karlee Simonson struck out seven hitters while walking none and several hard-hit balls were right at the Rockford defenders. The only ball to fall in for a hit came with two out in the seventh, when Kimball’s Tammy Kuechle singled to break up the no-hitter.

The Paynesville Invitational was played on Saturday in frigid conditions. The week’s weather was truly amazing as the team went from the furnace (on Monday) to the icebox (on Saturday). The first game was a nightmare, as the Cubs’ pitching let down for the first time, allowing 10 hits and walking seven. Along with five errors, the Cubs continued to have a problem with giving up a big inning. This time they allowed eight runs in the second and seven more in the fifth inning, as Paynesville cruised to an easy victory. After a short break, the Cubs had to regroup and face ACGC. This time it was the Cubs who had the early big inning. Kimball used a bases-loaded triple from Christy Pladson, who later scored, to take a 4-0 lead. Tammy Kuechle tripled in the second inning driving in two more runs. Jenny Hokkala, Peggy VanNurden and Erin Montonye scored in the third inning, and a two run homerun by Tammy Kuechle, after Amanda Linn had tripled in Montonye in the fifth, staked the Cubs to a 12-1 lead. Jenny Gully was cruising along on the mound and the Cubs were one out away from ending the game in the bottom of the fifth by the ten-run rule, when an error gave the Falcons life, and over the next two innings they would use six hits and six Kimball errors to score nine unearned runs to stage a rally. Kimball got two more runs in the sixth on RBI singles from Linn and Kuechle to take a 14-10 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning. Gully pulled it out with a strike out (she had seven for the game) and two defensive plays by shortstop Kuechle brought the Cubs their first win of the season. Kuechle was 4-4 with a homerun, triple, and four RBI. Amanda Linn was 2-4 with a triple and three RBI, Christy Pladson 2-4 with a triple and three RBI, and Erin Montonye
2-4, with three runs scored. Gully went the distance to pick up the win with seven strikeouts, one walk, and no earned runs allowed.

The 2002 varsity squad consists of seniors Kim Mackereth, Christy Pladson, Jenny Hokkala, Peggy VanNurden, Heather Nystrom and Brandy Stuve. Juniors are Amanda Linn, Jenny Gully, Tammy Kuechle and Erin Montonye. Freshman Jodine Lemke completes the team roster. Through the first week, the team strengths appear to be pitching and defense (if we can avoid giving up a big inning) but concerns are in order about the offense. The team batting average after five games is only .205 (lead by Kuechle’s .529), while pitcher Jenny Gully’s earned run average is a good 2.03. The schedule remains quite hectic in the weeks to come, with four games this week and five the next. The Cubs are playing this season on Field Five while construction continues at the high school and on the former softball field.