By Hub City Times staff

MARSHFIELD – Six runs – that’s what the Spencer Rockets’ softball needed last week to advance to this week’s Division 4 sectional semifinal at Onalaska Luther May 29. The Rockets got wins over Bangor and top-ranked Cochrane-Fountain City to advance to sectionals.

In the regional semifinals on May 23, Spencer beat Bangor 3-0. Tiffany Meinders got the win, pitching a complete-game, one-hit shutout, while striking out 15 batters. Lexi Baehr had a double and an RBI for Spencer. The Rockets scored three times in the first inning, and that held up the rest of the way.

In regional finals the following day, Spencer defeated No. 1 Cochrane-Fountain City (CFC) 3-2. Again, the Rockets scored all of their runs in one big inning, and it was enough for the win. After the Pirates grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second inning, Spencer scored three times in the fourth inning. The Pirates got a run back in the bottom of that inning, but neither team scored in the final three innings, and Spencer held on for its first regional championship since 2012 – after losing in the regional final round in each of the past three seasons, including two losses to Marathon.

Kaylee Hopperdietzel knocked in a run on a base hit, and Chloe Drews drove in two runs for the Rockets.

Meinders was again the winning pitcher. She gave up two runs on 11 hits and struck out seven batters.

The No. 4 Rockets advanced to the Sectional Semi-final with CFC with an overall record of 15-5. The sectional final is scheduled for Markesan on May 31.

The Marshfield Tigers’ softball team needed just six innings to dispatch Wausau West from the Division 1 regionals on May 24, as Marshfield punched its ticket to the sectional semifinal round this week. The Tigers beat the Warriors 15-5 on May 24 at the Fairgrounds in Marshfield.

The Tigers scored three times in each of the first two innings, and equaled that total in the third as they jumped out to a 12-1 lead. While West scored four times over the next two innings, it was not nearly enough. The Tigers came back with three runs in the home half of the sixth inning to end the game on the 10-run rule.

Megan Donahue got the complete-game win. She gave up four earned runs on seven hits while walking six and striking out 12. She also singled, tripled, homered, and knocked in four Tiger runs.

Jenna Jakobi had four base hits and drove in five runs. Rhiannon Corozolla had three singles and two runs batted in; Emily Draeger had a single, a double and an RBI; Taylor Barwick had two singles and a double; Morgan Nordbeck drove in two runs; and Brianna Jakobi knocked in a run as well.

The win drove the Tigers’ record to 22-4 going into May 29 sectional action in Marshfield.