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Softball team continues winning ways at Augustana Invitational
Hot bats and effective pitching help extend winning streak to 17 games
 Brooke Gentzler
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 Paula U´Ren
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Sioux Falls, S.D., was the next city that the SCSU softball team was looking to conquer this weekend. The Huskies made the trek to the Mount Rushmore state to participate in the Augustana College Invite. The Huskies were perfect in the round-robin tournament, going 5-0.
Even in the windy conditions during the first day of the tournament, the Husky sluggers still managed to crank out 34 runs, compared to the nine their opponents scored. Abby Bourman, first-year second baseman Megan Fuches, and Brooke Gentzler batted in almost half of those runs as the three teammates had a total of 14 RBIs on the weekend.
"I think that we played pretty good together," Gentzler said. "All the way around, defense and offense was clicking."
Gentzler herself has been clicking this season as she has batted in 23 base runners, which is enough to lead the team.
"Every team, we just completely wiped them away with our runs, our hitting was amazing," said sophomore pitcher Nicole Webb, "We have never hit the ball like we did this year."
Webb had a pretty fine weekend pitching also, starting in three of the five games played at the invitational, and throwing a shutout in the 3-0 win over the University of South Dakota, on the first day of softball action. Last week, Webb was named the North Central Conference pitcher of the week for her performance in last weekend's North Dakota State Invite. Webb also came in during the seventh inning to relieve Tiffany Rose in the 10-inning 4-2 win against Southwest State.
Transfer pitcher Megan Grimes also came in to relieve Webb in the last game of day one, a game in which Augustana played the part of a gracious host, as the Huskies roughed up the Vikings for a 7-4 victory. Grimes was also ready to throw some balls to hitters in the next day of competition as she got the big 'W' against Missouri Western, 11-2.
"We mixed it up well and we got some good productivity," said head coach Paula U'Ren of the performance put on by the entire pitching staff. "The pitchers threw well."
All of the Husky pitchers earned a win on the weekend. Grimes and Webb both threw for two wins and Tiffany Rose added another.
Even though the pitching staff did well, a stellar defense backing them up didn't hurt either.
"We played against some good hitting teams," Gentzler said. "We made the plays when it came down to it."
The whole weekend was a total team effort as every player stepped up to help contribute to the common goal of winning.
"We don't really have one go to player," U'Ren said. "We have players that can come off the bench and contribute. That's been kind of one of our main goals and emphasis, that everyone is ready to go and do whatever it takes to win as a team."
The Huskies will be able to continue doing what it takes to win as a team, and also try to extend their 17-game winning streak Wednesday against North Dakota State University.
Ben Dunsmoor can be reached at: [email protected]
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