River Falls softball split a pair of games against rival Hudson with a 5-3 home win and 10-0 road loss, and the baseball team extended a winning streak to four games after sweeping Menomonie and closing the week with a 9-6 win over St. Croix Falls.

The softball week started with an April 14 bout at home against Hudson. River Falls coughed up a pair of runs in the first, but the Wildcats matched with a run in the first and two in the third highlighted by a home run from McKenna Cook to take a 3-2 lead. After Hudson re-tied the game at three in the third, Catelyn Moe hit a ground ball in the bottom of the fourth that was misplayed, allowing Dani Poellinger to score a run that would give River Falls a lead it would hold the rest of the way.

Senior pitcher Audra Adermann was stellar, throwing seven innings and allowing three runs (one unearned).

Game two was a different story for the Wildcats, losing to Hudson 10-0 in six innings. River Falls mustered just two hits (Poellinger and Reagan Scherz) and committed four errors in the field.

“They felt like two very different ball games. The first one we played at home in our environment, something we’re used to, and our players came out looking like there was nobody going to get in their way,” Head Coach Leah Fletcher said. “Thursday they came out a little bit flatter and maybe a little more hesitant.”

Fletcher said Hudson pitchers Brenna Oberle and Izzy Schiavone both pose problems for opponents, and Schiavone was especially strong in the 10-0 win, going all six innings.

“We go in with the same approach no matter what, so I don’t think it was that,” Fletcher said. “We didn’t force her to throw as many pitches as we could have. We didn’t get very deep in our counts. I don’t even know if she broke 70 pitches, honestly.”

River Falls also split its conference matchups with Eau Claire North a week ago, so the focus shifts to consistency from game to game.

“Just being competitive both days. Not reacting too much to the win, not overreacting to any losses,” Fletcher said. “Just understanding they’re capable of winning two games in the same week if they just go out and set their minds to it.”

Baseball

A 3-0 week was caused by a perfect storm of good play from the baseball squad to move to four consecutive wins and a 4-1 overall record. The week opened with a pair of conference matchups against Menomonie, winning low-scoring games 3-0 and 4-2. The Wildcat pitching was exceptional with Ethan Jeffers going six and two-thirds innings in the shutout win and Landon McQuade going six innings in the 4-2 win. River Falls also made just two errors in the two-game span.

To close the week, River Falls won 9-6 in a non-conference game against St. Croix Falls, with five different pitchers taking to the mound to get the win.

The story of the game was the breakout day at the plate, collecting 11 hits from six different players, including three from Cal DuMond and Lane Amidon, and two from McQuade.

“It’s high school baseball, you have to be able to put the ball in play and take good approaches at the plate,” River Falls Head Coach Ryan Bishop said. “For the most part we have a full lineup, and even our guys on the bench do a pretty good job with that. We have confidence that we’re going to be tough outs at the plate and make defenses work, make pitchers work.”

St. Croix Falls starter Elliot Wilson presented slower pitching than others River Falls have faced this season, which was a change of pace for the hitters.

“They had to make adjustments and they had to trust that their hands are good enough,” Bishop said. “It was good for us to have to battle with that a little bit today.”

Playing five games in eight days to open the new season, the Wildcats have put a lot of different pitchers on the mound thus far. That is by design, as Bishop has full confidence in a list of different student-athletes.

“We pride ourselves on making sure our youth program pitches almost every player,” Bishop said. “When they get to the high school levels, we have them all throw bullpens. They work, and we’ve got 10 guys that we can throw out there on any given night and we feel like they’re going to give us a chance.”

Bishop said while they may not have a Division 1 pitcher on the mound like previous years, River Falls has multiple pitchers among the best in the Big Rivers Conference. While most teams look to avoid adversity, Bishop said facing adversity in the early going is something the team needs to get better.

“Tuesday [3-0 win] was our best game of the year, but it was the game we probably grew the least from because everything was so easy, and it was against a good team and everything went great,” Bishop said. “These last two nights, we’ve gotten wins against good teams, and it hasn’t been as easy. So, we’ve gotten better, we’ve learned.”