By Adam Knoll
Sports Correspondent
The Whippets softball team is off to a great start this season, currently sitting at 5-2 after taking both ends of a doubleheader April 18 from East Troy, 18-7 and 9-2.
While it would be easy to say that the Whippet bats were hot, that would indicate that at some point they had cooled down but that wasn’t the case. Whitewater continued its torrid pace throughout both games and gave East Troy little chance to recover.
In the first game of the day, Whitewater sprayed the ball all over the field with 14 hits, while also taking five walks. East Troy only helped the Whippets’ momentum with 10 fielding errors.
In game No. 1, Whitney Treder accounted for three hits, Michaela Schumacher and Emily Stoll, two each while Sally Hixson led the team with three RBIs en route to Whitewater crossing home plate 18 times.
Izzy Zahn got her first game of the year on the mound – a completed five-plus innings. Schumacher finished up the last two, se-curing the victory.
In the second game, things were similar but in a lower dosage. East Troy continued to struggle defensively but only committed six errors, a vast improvement over the earlier game.
Whitewater managed 10 hits in the game and six walks. Schumacher led they way offensively with two hits; Treder and Hannah Tuinstra followed suit with two of their own.
Tuinstra led the team with 2 RBI’s and Schumacher got the start and finished the game giving up only one run, while striking out seven.
Whippet head coach Ron Sdana was pleased following the sweep.
“We lost two tough games to McFarland this week, so I wanted to see how the girls would respond against East Troy,” Sdana said. “This was exactly the way I hoped they would respond. Our girls had lots of energy and enthusiasm and it showed in how we played.”
Sdana said he was also happy with the effort he got from his two pitchers.
“We got really good pitching from both Izzy and Michaela today. They both looked strong out there,” he said.
