One of the best Comfort softball seasons came to an end last weekend after the Deer were swept by Henrietta in the second round of the playoffs.
The Lady Cats defeated Comfort in a couple of close games, 4-0 and 6-3. The Deer end their season with a record of 19-14 and won their first district title in 19 years during the 2023 season.
The series turned into a defensive battle that feature great pitching on both sides and Comfort struggled to get its bats going in Game 1. The Deer only recorded one hit in the 4-0 loss that came from the stick of Morgan Hansen, who singled in the first.
Comfort did take 6 walks so they had base runners but just couldn’t push in any runs.
The Deer defense committed 7 errors in the game and none of the runs scored by Henrietta were earned. Emma Wardlaw took the loss and gave up 4 hits, no earned runs, walked 1 and struck out 9.
Game 2
Comfort played better in Game 2 and recorded 5 hits and scored 3 runs, but it wasn’t enough after the Lady Cats had a big inning in the third with 5 runs and added another in the seventh for the 6-3 win.
Three singles and two errors allowed Henrietta to score its 5 runs in the third, but in the fourth, Morgan Hansen tripled and Hope Van Geffen singled to help Comfort score its first runs of the series and make it 5-3.
It stayed that way until the seventh when the Lady Cats added an insurance run to double up the Deer, 6-3.
Comfort finished with 5 hits, including the triple by Hansen, who also singled, drove in 2 runs and walked twice. Van Geffen had the single, scored and drove in a run, Kendyl Rust and Tori Hernandez both singled, with Hernandez and Kippy Sterling scoring one run each.
Emma Wardlaw fanned 6, gave up 7 hits, 3 earned runs, no walks and fanned 6.
Kirstyn Barnard pitched great for Henrietta and struck out 30 Comfort batters in the two games, 16 and 14.
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