Probst bashes two homers as Fox Valley Lutheran softball downs Appleton North
By Dustin Riese
For AppletonSportsPage.com
APPLETON – Now that it appears Mother Nature is finally willing to cooperate, the high school spring sports season is set to push straight ahead.
Fox Valley Lutheran and Appleton North met for a nonconference softball game at North High School on Friday, and backed by a pair of Nora Probst homers and a six-run fourth inning, it was all FVL as the Foxes downed the Lightning 7-1.
“The Foxes are a really solid team, and Madison Babcock pitched incredibly well,” North head coach Christopher Nissen said. “We were on our heels in the batter’s box and taking some good pitches and getting in a hole we couldn’t dig out of in our at-bats.”
With neither team being able to get anything going in the first inning, Probst started the scoring as she connected for a solo shot to left to lead off the second inning and the Foxes took an early 1-0 lead.
The Foxes would never look back as they led this one from start to finish. Madison Babcock and Brianna Dahlke combined to strike out 11 North hitters, five coming from Babcock, who tossed four scoreless frames.
As if one homer wasn’t good enough, why not make it two as Probst connected for her second homer in as many at-bats off of Charlotte Radtke to push the Foxes lead to 3-0 in the fourth. That was only the beginning for the Foxes as their bats erupted for six runs in their half of the fourth to open up a massive 7-0 lead. Dahlke continued the big inning by working a walk before advancing to third on the Andi Bierman single.
In danger of stranding a pair of runners on base, Avery Steffes came through with a massive two-run single to extend FVL’s lead to 4-0. Claire Pfrang continued the Foxes two-out rally with an RBI double, while a Babcock single closed out what was a six-run fourth, putting FVL in front 7-0.
Hoping to battle back in their half of the fifth, Maggie Hendrick led off the bottom of the fourth with a single for the Lightning, only to be turned away without any damage. Nissen on what went wrong during the fourth inning.
“Charlotte pitched really well and missed on a couple of pitches, and they barreled them up,” he said. “We were tentative on a couple of balls that we should have made plays on in the fourth, but we will learn and grow from that. I thought we were much more aggressive both at the plate and defensively in the sixth and seventh, but I was happy to see our young group not give up on themselves. Playing tough teams like FVL will help us grow as a team.”
It took six innings for the Lightning offense to break through, and it came after the Foxes made a pitching change to go with Dahlke to close out the game. What started with a two-out hit by a pitch from Hendrick was followed up by a walk by Claire Therkildsen as the Lightning were trying a little two-out magic of their own. That would pay off later in the inning with Lila Griffith coming through with an RBI to put an end to the shutout and finish the scoring.
Fox Valley Lutheran will be back in action Monday at home against Clintonville, while Appleton North will host Oshkosh West on Tuesday.
Foxes 7, Lightning 1
Fox Valley Lutheran 010 600 0 – 7 10 0
Appleton North 000 001 0 – 1 3 0
WP: Madison Babcock. LP: Charlotte Radtke.
SO: Babcock (4 inn.) 5, Brianna Dahlke (3 inn.) 6; Radtke (4 inn.) 7, Sophia Wald (3 inn.) 3. BB: Babcock 0, Dahlke 1; Radtke 1, Wald 3.
Top hitters: FVL, Claire Pfrang 4×4, 2B, 2 RBI; Nora Probst 2×3, 2 HRs, 2 runs, 3 RBI. AN, Lila Griffith 2B, RBI.
Records: Fox Valley Lutheran 2-0; Appleton North 1-3.