Just days after opening the season with a victory, the Skyview softball team took its first ever win over the Homer Mariners with a 6-5 triumph Tuesday at Skyview. In the last season for the Skyview Panthers, things sure seem to be coming around just fine.
“It’s huge,” said Skyview coach Steve Schoessler. “The girls were kind of in disbelief.”
Homer was the lone Peninsula representative at last year’s state tournament, which helped to stamp them as one of the favorites this year.
Schoessler said if his team could eradicate the consecutive mistakes that have dogged the Panthers in the past, his team could be real contenders. Tuesday proved that.
Cat Schoessler hit 3 for 3 with a double and a triple, Sam Reynolds hit 2 for 3 with a double, Mikaela Rybek hit 2 for 3 with an in-the-park home run, and Kristen May notched a double as well.
On the mound, Reynolds pitched all six innings with six strikeouts, three walks and gave up six hits.
Schoessler also said that his defensive unit got out of a jam with the bases loaded on three occasions.
“It got pretty tense there at the end,” Schoessler said. “(Megan) Pitzman hit a pretty hard grounder that our shortstop (Victoria Oberts) got a glove on. That was pretty big, if she hadn’t got that, Homer would’ve scored at least one run.”
After scoring three runs in the bottom of the third inning to take a 3-1 lead, Skyview added to that with three more runs in the fourth.
Homer struck back with four runs in the fifth inning that closed the gap, but timely pitching and defense in the sixth helped secure the win.
The win improves Skyview’s season record to 2-3, while Homer dropped to 0-5.
