Lyssa Beyer

It was a roller coaster weekend for the Blugold softball team, as it swept UW-Stevens Point Saturday but fell to UW-Whitewater Sunday.

The Blugolds now have to hope for second place in the WIAC, as Whitewater clinched the conference with its wins Sunday.

Eau Claire has a doubleheader against UW-Superior today to finish up its regular season play.

“We’re just looking forward to having the regular season done at this point,” coach Leslie Huntington said. “We’re going to be shifting gears and focusing on the conference tournament because now we don’t have to worry about a conference championship because that’s not within our reach anymore.”

Whitewater battled Superior Saturday on the next field over from Gelein. Superior, forced to move its remaining home games to Eau Claire due to poor weather conditions, dropped both games to Whitewater.

The weather wasn’t much better in Eau Claire, with temperatures in the 20s and snow showers. But the cold weather didn’t slow down the Blugolds, who racked up 23 hits in two games over Stevens Point. The Blugolds took the first game 10-5 and the second game 12-4.

Senior Casey Leisgang knocked in her seventh home run of the season. Her career total for home runs is now 34, which is a school record. Leisgang and senior Jill Janke led Eau Claire with four hits each in the doubleheader.

Senior Michelle Butkus and sophomore Bekki Kidnie each had three hits.

Freshman pitcher Jenny Ross started both games Saturday, picking up wins in both. She gave up a total of eight hits, no walks and struck out 10 batters.

Eau Claire hitters didn’t have nearly as much luck Sunday against Whitewater, as pitcher Jessica Stang held the Blugolds to just one hit and two walks in game one.

“She’s just a top-notch pitcher,” Huntington said. “We weren’t disciplined at the plate for one thing, but give her all the credit in the world; she did an outstanding job.”

Ross, who got the start in game one, gave up a home run in the fourth inning and later gave up another run in the seventh to take the 2-0 loss. This is the first loss of the season for Ross. Her record now stands at 16-1.

Junior Kristi Doucette started in game two, running into trouble almost immediately. Doucette gave up two base hits before giving up a three run home run. Doucette went three innings and gave up six runs on seven hits.

The Blugolds didn’t get on the board until the fourth inning when Butkus led off with a double. She advanced to third on a passed ball, and Doucette singled her in. Kidnie and sophomore Katie Stalker each had singles to load the bases and Leisgang walked, forcing in a run. Sophomore Tamara Zeman also walked, forcing in another run to make the score 6-3. But that was all the Blugolds could come up with, as they left the bases loaded.

“We had momentum the whole game, but we finally really turned it on,” Doucette said. “Unfortunately, it was just too late. It was a great team effort.”

The Blugolds got two outs to start the fifth, but the Warhawks erupted, collecting six hits that scored six runs. One of those hits was a grand slam to make the score 12-3.

“They are an outstanding hitting team,” Huntington said. “And they just handled everything we threw at them.”

Eau Claire scored one more run in the bottom of the fifth, but were still eight runs behind and the game was called after five.

“I think that we’re a very good team,” Doucette said. “We just need to go out there and get after it.”

Eau Claire dropped to third place in the WIAC with a record of 10-4. UW-Oshkosh holds second place with a record of 10-3, but still has matchups against UW-Platteville and Stevens Point in the next few days.

The Blugolds’ last regular season home games begin today at noon on Gelein Field in Carson Park. The team will then be off until Friday when it heads to Stevens Point for the WIAC tournament.

“We have to do everything we can in the next week to prepare us to play well in the conference tournament,” Huntington said. “And then, who knows?”