Gehlen Catholic received 12 walks and combined that with 11 hits to defeat Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn 16-4 in five innings June 3 at Hartley. With the loss, HMS fell to 2-1 in War Eagle Conference play and 3-3 in all games.
“We took a hard loss tonight,” said Hawk head coach Stephanie Bronstad. “Gracie (Knobloch) struggled on the mound from the beginning. Kamryn (Ebel) came in and tried to pick up and let Gehlen hit and have the defense help but the girls made some errors and the bats didn’t come on like we had hoped. Ready to move on.”
Knobloch faced 10 batters in Gehlen’s four-run first inning. She pitched to four more in the second without recording an out before giving way to Ebel. Knobloch allowed seven runs on two hits and seven walks while striking out one batter. Six of the runs were earned. In her four innings Ebel gave up nine earned runs on nine hits. She walked five batters, struck out three and hit two.
The Hawks scored all of their runs in fourth inning. With one out Eliza Tewes and Ebel recorded back-to-back singles. An error allowed each to move up a base. Kinsey Schirmer delivered a two-out single to score both runners. Knobloch drove in Schirmer with a double and eventually scored when Cadence Klein reached base on an error.
Knobloch went 3-for-3 with singles in both the first and third innings. Klein singled in those same innings to go 2-for-3. Bailey VerHelst had a base hit in the second as did Abby Kunzman in the third.
Gehlen 4 3 1 5 3 – 16
HMS 0 0 0 4 0 – 4