West De Pere softball turns back cross-town rival De Pere

DE PERE – When De Pere and West De Pere get together on the softball diamond, it’s always a competitive game. 

The teams’ Fox River Classic Conference (FRCC) showdown on April 28 at Westwood Elementary School in De Pere was no exception. 

Behind strong pitching, clutch hitting and some shaky De Pere defense, West De Pere (6-6 overall, 4-3 FRCC) turned back its cross-town rival in front of a large crowd, 10-5. 

The Phantoms scored four runs in the first inning with the help of two De Pere errors and added five more runs in the fifth on seven hits to turn a close game into a comfortable win. 

During the marathon fifth inning, the Phantoms – winners of six of their last eight games – sent 10 batters to the plate. 

“It was a very nice win – I couldn’t be prouder of the girls’ commitment today,” West De Pere Coach Jennifer Nelson said. “Early in the season, we were still finding out a little bit of who we were. We’ve been getting double-digit hits in many of those games.”

For the Redbirds (6-5, 4-3), Coach Travis Piper said his team has had some troubles this season defensively. 

“That’s kind of been our problem all season,” he said. “We’ve had good games and bad – we have a young infield. We rely on our offense to get us going. Even when we were down 4-0 early and 10-5 with two innings left, I knew we were still in the game. We had chances to come back, but our mistakes came back to haunt us.” 

De Pere smashed a dozen hits in the game, led by Micah Zirbel’s three hits. 

Jaelyn Craig, Bella Robinett and Siena Arendt all added a pair of hits, while Craig knocked in a pair of runs. 

Robinett belted a home run in the fifth inning for the Redbirds. 

For the Phantoms, pitcher Miah Shefchik batted in two runs with her two hits, while Mallory DeMoulin and Kailey Fink each had two hits. 

Brooke Shoemaker drilled a home run in the fourth inning for West De Pere. 

Shefchik went six innings for the Phantoms, allowing 12 hits and five earned runs. 

West De Pere played error-free ball defensively.