STEVENSVILLE — It has been a difficult week for the Dowagiac softball team, but the Chieftains did manage to pull out a couple of victories.

The Chieftains finished seventh at the Lakeshore Invitational Saturday after falling to the host Lancers in the opening round and then being defeated by South Bend St. Joseph.

Dowagiac ended the day with a win over the Lakeshore JV.

The Chieftains lost to the Lancers 7-1, while the Indians defeated Dowagiac 13-8.

“We battled Lakeshore to the end and were only down 2-1 after the fifth inning after giving away a couple cheap runs,” Dowagiac coach Mike Behnke. “We had other opportunities to score and just couldn’t get that hit with runners on.”

The Chieftains edged the Lakeshore JV 16-13 in the seventh place game.

Dowagiac had just four hits in the first game against the Lancers, but had 10 hits against St. Joseph, including Mickie Kiggins with a pair of doubles and Megan Soderbloom with a double.

In the final game of the tournament, the Chieftains scored 16 runs on 13 hits.

Soderbloom went 3-for-5 with a home run and four RBIs, while Taylor Hulett and Alyssa Allen both doubled and drove in three and two runs respectively.

Hulett picked up the victory.

“Lakeshore’s JV is no joke,” Behnke said. “They have some pretty good players and could beat  a lot of varsity teams. We got up 10 early and then kind of coasted through the rest of game especially when Taylor’s arm started to hurt and had to come out. We played sloppy defense behind Haley and Megan Soderbloom, which led to them getting back into the game. However, we pounded the ball all game, which is what you are supposed to do in that situation.”

 

Lakeshore Invitational

At Stevensville

First Game

Lakeshore                   001     011     4 – 7 12 1

Dowagiac                    000     100     0 – 1 4 3

Jamie Belt (W); Taylor Hulett (L)

2B: (L) Rachel Reidel

HR: (L) Rachel Clem

Varsity records: Lakeshore 14-4

 

Second Game

S.B. St. Joseph             015     600     1 – 13 14 1

Dowagiac                       101     410     1 – 8 10 2

Maggie Gillis (W); Megan Soderbloom (L)

2B: Kaley Mrozinski (S), Maggie Gillis (S), Libby Peterson (S), Mickie Kiggins (D) 2, Megan Soderbloom (D)

Varsity record: St. Joseph 11-1

 

Seventh Place Game

Dowagiac                      023     523     1 – 16 13 3

Lakeshore JV              100     154     2 – 13 15 3

Taylor Hulett (W); Kendra Green (L)

2B: Hulett (D), Alyssa Allen (D), Cassidy Zavoral (L), Green (L) 2, Gabrielle Rothrock (L) 2

HR: Soderbloom (D)

Varsity record: Dowagiac 13-11