Showing great pitching form, Abby Prom delivers some “heat” at a recent home game. Prom won two starts for the Vikings, who spent the season looking for a “go to” pitcher.
The Cook County High School girls’ softball team went into the playoffs with some momentum, winning the last two games of the season.
On Friday, May 19 against Cromwell, the Vikings won 15-3 and later the same day came back to beat Floodwood 13-2.
Head coach Peter Lucken said against Cromwell the Vikings never trailed and came up with some big hits when they were needed.
“We really hit the ball well on Friday,” Lucken said. “Some really hard-hit balls into the gaps propelled us and we did a lot of things right on offense and capitalized on some (of Cromwell’s) mistakes.”
Against Floodwood the Vikings continued to hit the ball and score runs. “Alyssa Spry went 3-3 at the plate with a double,” Coach Lucken said.
Pitching, which at times has been a struggle for the Vikings, was great against Cromwell and Floodwood.
“Abby Prom pitched both games of the doubleheader and looked fantastic,” said the coach. “She’s not one to get a lot of strike outs but she uses her defense very well and today the defense backed her up.”
looking forward to playoffs because we know can compete.”
With playoffs right around the corner, Lucken was optimistic.
“Overall it was just a really good day for us. We played the game the way we know we can and are
Vikings bow out of playoffs
On Tuesday, May 23, the Vikings traveled to play the South Ridge Panthers in the first round of Section 7A softball playoffs.
The Vikings fell 6-0 to end their playoff hopes.
“The score does not really show how good this game was,” said Coach Lucken. “Aside from one or two plays that we could have made this game was really close. We just did not get anything going offensively.
The pitcher from South Ridge is one of the best ones we have seen.”
The game remained scoreless until the third inning when South Ridge batter Bushbaum was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to score the first run. South Ridge would add four more in that inning on an error and a walk.
“Our defense really played well today,” Lucken said. “There was only really one mistake and unfortunately it happened with runners on base, but those are the breaks of the game. It would have been really easy for us to roll over but we kept trying to score. There were a few times we were only a hit or an error away from putting together an inning offensively.
“We improved immensely from the first time we played them and even though we lost I am very proud of how the girls performed,” said Coach Lucken.
The Vikings graduate three seniors off of this year’s team, twins Mariah and Maranda Deschampe and Hannah Toftey. Said Coach Lucken, “I’d like to say their leadership helped improve the younger players. Thanks very much to Hannah Toftey, Maranda Deschampe, and Mariah Deschampe. I know they will all go on to do great things in their futures.”
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