By By TOM NYHUIS / Niles Daily Star
NILES - The Buchanan bats were smoking after their two game sweep of Berrien Springs Tuesday afternoon. The Lady Bucks took a 14-2 Lakeland Conference victory in the opener and came back in game two with a 15-0 win in four innings.
Buchanan smashed 32 hits in the two games, 12 of those for extra base hits, including freshman Maggie Ernsberger's sixth and seventh home run of the season. Ernsberger also had a triple and a single in the two games.
Berrien opened game one with two runs in the bottom half of the first and held the Bucks to a single run in the second inning.
"We came out sleep walking," Buchanan coach Mike Welsh said. "We hit two rounds of pre-game infield and I pulled them off the field. I was not happy. We were not ready to play, our minds were not in there. We have a pretty good little ball club when we are ready to play, but we were not ready to play."
From that point, Buchanan pitcher Ashley Pointer held the Shamrocks scoreless the rest of the way and finished the game striking out six and walking three Shamrock batters.
The Lady Bucks bats finally woke up as they scored two runs in the third to take over the lead and added three runs in the fourth and fifth and put up another five in the sixth.
"Once we start getting a little small ball going, it seems we get the other team rattled. We have a lot of speed and our kids buy into that and then we have some good hitters too and when you get that going you can drive some people pretty crazy," Welsh said
Linzey Shembarger gave up 19 hits in the loss for Berrien and walked three.
Six Buchanan players had multi-hits in game one. Jill Woodrick had four singles, Pointer finished with three singles and a double. Hayley Burks, Chenai Marker, Holly Lucas and Ernsberger each had two hits.
The bats continued to smoke in game two as the Lady Bucks finished the game with 13 hits in four innings. Emily Ross and Jayme O'Bryant each picked up three hits in the game. Berrien didn't help their chances of keeping the game close as they committed seven errors in the game.
Again, it was Pointer picking up the win with the two hit shutout. She improves her record to 14-4 as the Bucks remain at the top of the LAC standings with a 11-1 league record and 17-6 overall.
"She (Pointer) has responded to me and I'm hardest on her than any other kid that I've had in this program. She knew I wasn't happy with what she was throwing out there in the first game. She told me between games that she was going to get a shut out in the second game," Welsh said. "She hits the corners and she has to live hitting spots, she can't live down the middle.'
Megan Fecho was pegged with the loss giving up five runs on five hits walking three. Shembarger came in relief of Fecho in the fourth inning as the Bucks pushed 10 runs across the plate in their top half of the fourth to put the game away.
Buchanan will get back on the diamond on Saturday as they host the Buck Classic opening the day at 10 a.m. against Bloomingdale with Bronson and River Valley to follow.