Softball: No. 2 Alpena ends Dow’s season

by Alex Baumgardner

Last weekend Dow High advanced to regionals with a pair of 1-0 victories over Midland High and Bay City Central.

On Saturday, one run just wasn’t enough.

Alpena’s Leah Cox had a 2-run double and pitcher Rachel Gebauer surrendered only one hit as the No. 2 Wildcats defeated Dow 2-1 in the Division 1 regional semifinal at Flushing High School.

Gebauer and the Wildcats each improved to 31-5 with the win over the Chargers and later improved to 32-5 with a 2-0 win over Flushing in the regional championship game. Alpena advances to Tuesday’s quarterfinals against Rockford (33-7).

“She’s a real good pitcher,” Dow High head coach Jason Gehoski said of Gebauer. “She worked fast, and we were trying really hard to try and get it to our speed, but it didn’t happen.”

It was Dow that actually got on the board first, though, by scratching out a run in the top of the second. After Gebauer struck out the first four batters she faced, she hit Abby Lerner with a pitch. Staci Thornton pinch ran for Lerner and advanced to second on a wild pitch before Shannon Young hit a ground ball that Wildcat shortstop Rachel Brown threw wildly to first. Staci Thornton raced around to score to give Dow a 1-0 lead.

That lead would remain intact until the bottom of the fourth when Courtney King walked the first two batters of the inning. Brown bunted them over, and King notched a strike out for the second out, but Cox made it 2-1 when she ripped King’s full-count offering deep into center.

The two base on balls and Cox’ double would prove to be the only real blemishes on King’s line as she allowed only one other hit and struck out 12 in suffering the loss.

“They’re just a good hitting club, and it just happened to go at the right time,” Gehoski said of the Wildcats. “It just took one hit. We were just two hits from getting back into the game. It just takes the one hit, and unfortunately it didn’t go our way.”

Gebauer, meanwhile, allowed only one hit and struck out 11 in earning the win.

Dow finishes the season 30-9-2 and will graduate five starters from this year’s team. Gehoski spoke glowingly of all of them following the loss.

“[I told them] that I was proud to be their coach,” he said. “They had a great season, and the way these games are, sometimes you come out on the winning end and sometimes you come out on the losing end. They went through a lot this year, and they’re one class act.”