HUMBOLDT — The Humboldt Lady Cubs wrapped up the regular season on a positive note, taking the finale of a Thursday doubleheader against Osawatomie in an 11-0 mercy rule.
Falling in the opener 8-4, the Lady Cubs rebounded to take the finale 11-0 on the heels of a six-strikeout shutout by senior Shelby Shaughnessy.
“This first game, I was doing pretty good until something in my mechanics messed up,” said Shaughnessy, who tallied 12 strikeouts in both contests. “I came back and focused on not worrying about it too much and just having fun. It’s hard, but it’s more of a mental game so I try not to think about it too much.”
Shaughnessy took the oss in the opener, holding Osawatomie scoreless through three innings.
Humboldt jumped out to a 4-0 lead on a fielding error and a pair of RBI singles from senior second baseman Skylar Hottenstein and junior shortstop Laney Hull, whose swing accounted for both of her team-leading two RBIs.
Osawatomie scored eight unanswered runs in the fourth inning.
Looking for a change of pace, Humboldt coach Brad Piley opted for sophomore reliever Jo Ellison, who tallied five strikeouts in four innings of work, but the Lady Cubs could not recapture their fire from earlier until later that evening.
“We needed to be a little more focused and swing at pitches we know we can drive,” Piley said. “We were getting impatient. We go out and try to hit the ball and not wait for that good pitch we can drive. Other than that, we just needed to get things going.”
Still fresh and having a chip on her shoulder from the previous game, Shaughnessy resumed the starting pitcher’s role from the opener. As Shaughnessy held Osawatomie to just four hits, Humboldt went to work with sophomore third baseman Kamry De La Torre putting them on the scoreboard with a sacrifice fly in the opening frame, lighting the fuse of a 10-run second inning and mercy-ruling the Trojans before the fifth inning.
“I had to focus. My first game was a little rough hitting,” said De La Torre, who had a team-leading four RBIs. “You have to move on and believe in your skills. We had Carman hit one that hit the fence as well.”
Several fielding errors, as well as RBIs from De La Torre, Hottenstein and sophomore outfielder Leah Carman allowed the Lady Cubs to pull away. With the win, the Lady Cubs wrap up the regular season 17-9 overall. They now wait to learn who they will face in the opening round of the regional tournament.
Coach Piley likes his team’s chances.
“We’re battling for third place in our regional,” Piley said. “We’re going to have to wait and see what Jayhawk-Linn and Anderson County do. We have a good chance. We just have to play well. We beat Iola, which is one of the top teams in the regional. We know we can beat them. We know we can play with Burlington. We just have to put it together.”
