Published: March 26, 2008 01:51 am            

Polar Bears spread wealth, rout Huskies

RACHEL — For all the positives through the first three games, West Fairmont softball coach Ken Beerbower felt his offense needed to alter its approach heading into Tuesday’s game with rival North Marion.

“The first few games we were taking too many strikes. (Tuesday), I wanted them to get after it,” Beerbower said.

Did they ever.

The Polar Bears recorded season highs in runs and hits — make that basically every offensive category — in a dominating five-inning, 18-1 whitewash of the host Huskies.

West (2-2), fresh off a tough 6-4 loss against Morgantown Monday, had 17 hits, all singles, the majority of them blistering line drives North fielders couldn’t get to in time.

“That’s the most hits we’ve had in a long time,” Beerbower said, smiling. “We tried to be aggressive as possible, and we’re hitting the ball better every game. That’s a real encouraging sign.”

Liz Hendrixson led off the game with a single. From there, West never stopped hitting.

In a span of three innings — the second through fifth — it tallied 17 runs on 13 hits. Hendrixson, Jen Williams and Jessica Ford had key RBI singles in a five-run third; another Ford single drove in two, swelling the lead to 13-0, the next inning.

All told, 10 Polar Bear players had at least one hit. The team also took advantage of three bases-loaded walks, five North errors and went through the batting order three times.

Huskies’ freshman starter Danielle Morgan gave up 10 runs in three innings.

“What we’re looking for game-by-game improvement. That is all we want,” North coach Jim Ice said. “There’s a big difference between game one and the end of the season.

“We’re a young team. We’ll improve.”

North (0-3), however, kept fighting and scored its first run of the season on a Deanna Martin groundout in the bottom of the fourth. Alyssa Pena, who came home on the play, broke up Bridget Ford’s no-hit bid with a double in the previous at-bat. It, amazingly, was the only extra-base hit all afternoon.

Take that one pitch away, and Ford was dazzling. The right-hander retired 10 straight to begin the game and reached a full count just twice. In all, she struck out five and walked one in seven innings.

“Bridget did a nice job,” Beerbower said. “She was getting ahead (of the count), and her drop was working. When she mixes that with her fastball, she’s pretty tough to hit.”

Hendrixson, Whitlee Retton, Jessica Ford, Bridget Ford, Chelsea Garcia and Jordan Hall had two hits apiece to pace West. Retton scored four runs and added an RBI; Hendrixson chipped in three runs and knocked in a pair.

Roxanne Blake and Emily Wehler also had run-scoring singles for the Polar Bears. Stephanie Woods also singled.

West visits Preston Thursday. North travels to Elkins the same day.

E-mail Nick Cammuso at ncammuso@timeswv.com.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.