Softball team runs win streak to 10

By Michael Leek
Sports Editor

A strong batting performance from the LCC softball team led it to a pair of wins on Sunday, March 24 against the host Lake Michigan College Red Hawks. LCC won the first game 9-5 and the second game 9-2.

These two conference wins moved the Stars’ overall record to 12-10 and its conference record to 6-0. The Stars pushed their win streak to 10 games.

In the first game, freshman Kyra Shadduck pitched all seven innings. facing 33 batters in total. Shadduck was awarded with the MCCAA Western Division “Pitcher of the Week” award following this game.

LCC Head Coach Marc Kibby said the team was swinging the bats well again, and the statistics tell the same story.

Freshman Malea Gardner went three for four at the plate, leading the Stars in hits, and recorded an RBI. Gardner, following this performance, was awarded Western Division “Player of the Week” honors.

In the second game, sophomore Kelsey Merillat pitched for the Stars, recording five strikeouts and giving up five hits.

On the batting side, Shadduck and sophomore Jenna Morse both hit home runs for LCC.

Sophomore Aliyah Holman led the Stars in the second game going a perfect four for four at the plate.

Kibby said despite all of the recent games being postponed or canceled, the Stars have been handling the erratic schedule well.

“We do things in this program to get them ready for what we face playing in the spring in this Michigan weather,” Kibby said. “When we go down south we play three or four days in a row. This mentally and physically gets us in shape.”

There were mistakes made on the defensive end for the Stars throughout both games. Kibby said that is something they still need to clean up.

“We had physical errors but we don’t use excuses,” Kibby said. “We had a lot of wind playing this weekend, which probably did affect it, but we need to learn how play with it. We also need to keep the pressure off our pitchers from having to throw more pitches because of miscues on the field.”

The Stars’ next games are scheduled for Friday, March 29 at home against Glen Oaks Community College.

Along with Lake Michigan College, Kibby said Glen Oaks is one of the teams in the conference he is excited to match up against to gauge where the Stars are currently at.

The first game will be played at 3 p.m. and the second at 5 p.m.  LCC will play two more home games against Kalamazoo Valley Community College the next day, Saturday, March 30, at 1 and 3 p.m.