By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
The past week was a win-win scenario for the East Troy High School softball team.
Not only did the Trojans add to more victories to their ledger, the also learned a few things that could help them down the road.
The young Trojans edged Big Foot 5-4 in the week’s first game, followed by a 13-10 slugfest victory in nine innings April 24 over Clinton.
With the two wins, East Troy improved to 7-3 overall and 6-2 in the Rock Valley Conference. The Trojans’ road game at Brodhead Monday was postponed.
East Troy coach Greg Prince was pleased with the win over Clinton, but also knows there’s still work ahead for his inexperienced squad.
“We came out and didn’t hit the ball very well,” he said. “We didn’t seem very focused at the plate early, and that really hurt us late in the game.
“The Clinton pitcher did a nice job of hitting spots and mixing things up, but we didn’t do a lot to help ourselves. We need to be more consistent in our approach to games. That will help us a lot in the long run.”
Tied at 5-5 after the seventh inning, the Trojans pushed three runs across the plate in the eighth on a sacrifice fly by Kaitlyn O’Connell, a squeeze bunt by Maria Kulick and a single by Hun ter Scheel that drove in Vanessa Dingman, who had tripled.
But Clinton answered with three runs of its own to send the game to one more extra frame.
In the ninth, East Troy finally took the lead for good on a two-run double by Maria Longstreet and a groundout by O’Connell.
Heimos closed out the game with two of her nine strikeouts to seal the victory for the Trojans. Only three of Clinton’s 10 runs charged to Heimos were earned.
“Sophia Heimos did a graet job for the first five innings,” Prince said. “She struggled a little over the last two innings and in the eighth (but) she righted the ship and was able to collect the win.”
The Trojans travel to Badger on Monday.
