SPRING VALLEY — The Spring Valley softball squad has already matched the win total from a year ago, improving to 3-1 with a five-inning 11-1 win over Elmwood/Plum City on April 16. An eight-run fourth inning was the difference maker, with the Cardinals showing firsthand that if you put the ball in play, good things happen.

Spring Valley had seven hits, and making contact forced seven errors from EPC defenders. The Cardinals struck out just four times on the evening.

“We were all hitting the ball really nice. We were keeping our head down and swinging to the ball instead of under it. We weren’t pulling our heads, which is what we normally do,” freshman catcher Elin Esanbock said.

The hitting success starts well before the Cardinals even step up to the plate. For them, it’s all about the approach.

“Being patient up at the plate and swinging at strikes,” Spring Valley Head Coach Matt Ducklow said. “We’ve taken our fair share of walks, but we also have been aggressive at the plate at the same time.”

Senior pitcher Megan Harvey was her usual dominant self in the circle. Harvey tossed five innings of one-hit, one-run ball with 11 strikeouts. Earlier in the week, Harvey struck out 10 in seven innings of a 5-3 win over Clear Lake, totaling 21 strikeouts in a three-day span.
“Oh my gosh, I don’t know. Those rise balls were rising so good, her screwballs were going out, her dropball wasn’t dropping normal, it was just floating in there,” Esanbock said. “She was throwing real good.”

The sky is the limit this season for Spring Valley. After returning eight of nine starters from a year ago and adding in a freshman class that is both skilled and eager to contribute, the Cardinals have taken a massive step forward.

“We’ve all had a good attitude. We aren’t down on each other. We’re not criticizing our teammates, but we’re helping them and encouraging them to do better,” Esanbock said. “We’re just sticking together.”

Spring Valley freshmen are the top four hits leaders for the Cardinals this season, with Esanbock at seven, Kemri Schlegel at six, Riley Zimmerman at four and Amelia Brunner at four. The freshmen showcased their abilities in the EPC game, with Esanbock tallying three hits, Schlegel two and Zimmerman one.

“One more year of experience at the varsity level for the girls that were on the team last year, and then we’ve added five freshmen too that are in and out of our lineup almost every single game as well, and that has helped us dramatically,” Ducklow said. “Just having that combination of the experienced girls that we had coming back from last year plus the incoming girls that weren’t on our team last year have improved our team dramatically.”

Given the infusion of freshmen, Ducklow is still trying to find the perfect combination in the field.

“We’re still trying to figure out where we’re at. We’re definitely improved from where we were last year, but we’re still working out some things, looking at some girls in some different positions and we’re going to solidify what our lineup is going to look like,” Ducklow said. “Overall, we were pretty pleased with how we played. We had some miscues in the field that weren’t very good, but overall, our hitting and our pitching was really good.”

The goal is to continue working on cohesiveness and chemistry as the year goes along.