Cougars conquer Comets on Sicard shutout

ACKLEY – AGWSR’s pitching staff is putting in extra work behind the scenes.

Cougars co-head coach Scott O’Brien has been working with Rachel Sicard and Ali Gerbracht to make sure the two relatively inexperienced pitchers can get as many reps in while preparing for Wednesday’s regional opener.

“We had practice the other day at eight o’clock at night,” Sicard said, “and Ali and I were able to get some good bullpens.”

The extra pitching clearly helped in the Cougars’ 2-0 regional quarterfinal win against BCLUW in Ackley.

Sicard turned in one of her cleanest performances in the circle to date this season, allowing just two hits and striking out six with no walks.

“She’s keeping the ball down,” O’Brien said. “She threw well against Dike-New Hartford [on Monday] also. Same thing there, she kept the ball down in the zone, made them hit the ball on the ground. She’s got some really good fine tuning on her roll over and getting a lot of late movement on that pitch to keep the ball away from the hitters but catch a corner to get a lot of strikes off it, too.”

Early run support likely helped keep Sicard focused, too. Sicard and Taylor Sperfslage slapped back-to-back RBI doubles off BCLUW’s Abby Feldpausch in the first inning for a quick 2-0 lead. Feldpausch only allowed one hit the rest of the way as the game settled in to a nice pitchers’ duel, but AGWSR’s extra-base hits ended up being enough.

In defeat, Feldpausch allowed just four hits with six strikeouts and three walks.

“Normally, we switch pitchers [to Kiersten Kruse] in the fifth inning,” BCLUW head coach Megan Yantis said. “But I saw the determination in her eyes and I saw what she had been doing the first four innings and I said, we’ve got to go with her.”

BCLUW’s best chance at a run was in the third inning. Kiersten Kruse reached base on an error that put Kruse at second and Kaylee Grant at third with one out. Sicard got Emma Averill out on a called strike three and Avery Lafrenz chased down a fly ball to right-center to get the Cougars out of the jam.

“Rachel did a nice job mixing it up and keeping our hitters on our toes,” Yantis said. “We played a little small ball that got them out of their game, but they bounced right back and it just felt like we were one hit away from tying it up every time.”

O’Brien appreciates the progress shown by the Cougars’ young outfielders – center fielder Lafrenz, left fielder Mady Mausser and right fielder Trinity Rotgers are all freshmen.

“They’re still young and there’s going to be some rough spots,” O’Brien said. “They have progressed. … We hope to keep them learning to get a better jump off the bat when they’re pursuing the ball and go from there.”

AGWSR, ranked 14th in Class 1A, improved to 10-4 overall and advanced to a Friday regional semifinal with Janesville (9-7) in Ackley. BCLUW’s season ends at 6-12.

“Everyone has improved so much compared to the beginning of the season,” Sicard said. “We’ve been practicing a lot, focusing on the dynamics of just playing softball. Just playing and getting the jitters out and relaxing has helped us all a lot.”

“Anybody has the opportunity to get [to Fort Dodge]. Sometimes the best teams can get knocked out and especially this year, it’s really up in the air with COVID.”

AGWSR 2, BCLUW 0

BCLUW        000   000   0     -    0     2     x

AGWSR       200    000   x    -    2     4     x

Winning battery– Rachel Sicard and Ali Gerbrachy. Losing battery – Abby Feldspauch and Kenna Paxson. Two or more hits– BCLUW, None; AGWSR (MaKenna Kuper). 2B– BCLUW (Kennedy Williams); AGWSR (Kuper, Sicard, Taylor Sperfslage). 3B– BCLUW, None; AGWSR (Kuper). SAC– None. SB– BCLUW (Kiersten Kruse); AGWSR, None. HBP– None. RBI– BCLUW, None; AGWSR (Sicard, Sperfslage).