WHITELAND — Whiteland took advantage of Columbus North’s errors and walks to post a 7-5 softball win Monday.
Only two of the seven runs the Warriors scored on the cold day were earned, thanks to three Bull Dog miscues. Even so, Whiteland needed to score two runs in the bottom of the sixth to escape with its first win of the season.
The Warriors (1-2) jumped on North early, scoring three unearned runs in the bottom of the first after two Bull Dog errors and two walks. A two-run double by Addy Csikos in the third scored Maddie Margraf and Jordan Smith to stake Whiteland to a 5-0 lead.
North (0-5) had plenty of chances to answer Whiteland in the early innings. The Bull Dogs left five runners on base in the first two innings, including two in scoring position in the fourth.
“We weren’t disciplined at the plate,” North coach Sam McDonald said. “(The umpire) was calling a real tight zone, and that’s what we were stressing to the girls — make them groove it up there … When we’re waiting for a pitch that we can crush, we’ll be good. Until we learn to do that, we’re going to struggle.”
The Bull Dogs finally displayed that patience in the fifth inning. Brittany Reichenda greeted reliever Delanie Gourley with a single, Haylee Acton doubled off the fence and Sierra Norman homered over the left field fence to close the gap to 5-3. Jenna Fath’s RBI-single two batters later closed the gap to one.
Shelby Gibson, who pitched the first four innings for Whiteland, came back to the circle to get the Warriors out of the inning. But North tied the game an inning later when pitcher Meghan Waggoner led off with a double and later scored on the front end of a double steal.
But Whiteland wasn’t finished. Gourley reached on a bunt single, stole second and scored on a error to put the Warriors ahead in the sixth. An RBI double by Margraf gave Whiteland an insurance run.
Gibson then sat the Bull Dogs down in order in the seventh to end the game.
Acton went 3 for 3, while Norman and Lilly Hurt had two hits each for North. Waggoner gave up two earned runs on seven hits with a pair of strikeouts in six innings and took the loss.
