A supercharged Soldotna offense came out swinging Wednesday at the Soldotna softball fields as the Stars overpowered the Houston Hawks with 62 total runs in a Northern Lights Conference doubleheader.
SoHi swept Houston with scores of 17-5 in four innings and 45-0 in three innings.
Soldotna head coach Kelli Knoebel said her team was able to take advantage of a young Houston squad that returned this season to field a varsity program. The Hawks were also without one of their best pitchers.
“A few years back we were on the other side of these games,” Knoebel said.
SoHi banged out 20 hits in the second game, led by Danielle Hills’ 4-for-7 day. Hills knocked in six RBIs and also had a triple against Houston, while teammate Ember Lohrke went 4 for 4 with four RBIs and got on base three more times on walks. Additionally, Bailey Berger made her varsity debut for SoHi by going 4 for 5 and Knoebel gave props to foreign exchange student Afina Zamara for drawing a walk and scoring a run.
Hills was also impressive in the pitching circle, tossing a no-hitter with four strikeouts and three walks, although Knoebel said there was an error in the SoHi infield that could have been scored a base hit against Hills.
The pair of wins left the Stars at 5-1 in the conference and 5-2 overall.
In the first game of the day, Hills pitched a complete game and finished with seven strikeouts and 10 walks.
SoHi leadoff hitter Jazi Larrow was 2 for 2 and drew two walks, while Amber McDonald hit 1 for 2, Darcy Blume went 2 for 4 with a triple and two RBIs, and Lohrke went 2 for 4 with a triple.
SoHi scored six runs in the first inning, then added six more in the third frame to push the lead to 12-2. The Stars plated five more runs in the bottom of the fourth to wrap up the win.
Soldotna hosts Homer on Monday and Kenai on Wednesday, its final two games of the regular season before the NLC tournament begins.
