With a doubleheader split on the road last Thursday in Pender, Wayne’s 18U softball team dropped its incidental three-game series to the Pendragon softballers. The Dirt Devils now sit at 10-5 on the season. In the first contest, Wayne was able to take the lead in the top of the fifth and hold on to topple the home team, 4-3. The game was all knotted up, 2-2, after four innings, when Rachel Hobbs singled on the first pitch of her at bat, scoring a runner in the process for the Devils. Another Wayne run later in the side proved to be the difference.
Mikaela McManigal, Logan Miller, Hope O'Reilly, Taytum Sweetland, Kylen Robbins, Aliah Schulz and Hobbs all managed a hit in the victory. Hobbs was credited with the pitching win for Wayne, allowing three runs off eight hits over five innings, striking out eight and walking one. The local 18s didn't commit a single error in the field, though Pender suffered three. Perhaps motivated by the one-run loss in game one, the Pendragons quickly turned things around and easily took the second match, 9-1, thanks to a five-run showcase in the top of the second inning.
Pender opened up the scoring in the first inning with a run scored off the Wayne 18s only error of the night. Hobbs hit an RBI single in her first plate appearance, which ended up being the lone run for the Dirt Devils in the ball game. Robbins, Miller, Hobbs, Sweetland, and McManigal each made a hit for Wayne. Defensively, it was Erica Brown taking the pitching loss, as she gave up six runs on six hits during her one and two-thirds innings stay on the mound. Wayne was scheduled for another twin bill on the road Tuesday night in Yankton, S.D., against the hometown Fury Red. The Dirt Devils will return to Yankton on Saturday for tournament play, first taking on Midwest United at 11 a.m., followed by the Sioux Falls Cyclones at approximately 12:30 p.m., before finishing off the day with a showdown against the Rapid City Rage at around 6:30 p.m. at Sertoma Park.
