The Wayland softball team ran in to another state-ranked opponent Saturday against Escanaba and absorbed a 6-3 loss to bring its overall season record to 4-2 in the Whitehall Invitational..
The Wildcats battled the fifth-ranked Eskimos to a 3-3 tie until the sixth inning
Junior hurler Madi Ludema suffered the pitching loss, yielding six runs on 10 hits, walking three and striking out three.
Offensively, the Cats were led by Harmony Laker, Mackenzie Kositzky, Rae Stallard and Shelby VanHouten, each of whom delivered a double, but Ludema had a single for Wayland’s only other hit. The Eskimos pitcher struck out a dozen batters,
Harmony Laker hurled one scoreless inning in relief.
Earlier in the day the Wildcats unleashed a 17-hit attack and 25 runs to subdue the host team in just four innings.
Kaylee Lown went 4-for-4 and VanHouten and Ludema both contributed three hits and Stallard and Izzy Johnson both added two hits.
Stallard’s hits delivered five runs batted in, VanHouten and Lown collected four RBIs and Ludema drove home three runs.
Whitehall was limited to four hits and it committed four errors.
Mackenzie Kositzky made her varsity debut on the mound and picked up the victory.
Wayland will open its defense of yet another O-K Gold Conference title Wednesday when it entertains South Christian.
