The Southeast Valley varsity softball picked up their first conference win Friday against the visiting Cougars from Manson Northwest Webster by a score of 6-2, bringing their conference record to 1-1 and their overall record to five wins and three losses. 

The Jaguar offense produced productive at bats and managed to plate at least one run in every inning of play with the exception of just one. In the first with two outs on the board, Chloe Lambert would score after hitting a laser off the Cougar second baseman’s arm, allowing her to reach first safely and advancing to second off an error by the right fielder. Jordyn Rowley would follow suit with a single of her own, scoring Lambert from first. In the second inning it would be junior Lauren Eslick to score for the Jags. Eslick capitalized off an error by the third baseman to reach first safely before stealing second to put herself into scoring position. After a great battle at the plate, sophomore Brooke Peterson would find success in hitting a solid double to the right-center gap to score Eslick from second. The third inning would be quiet for the Jags, but they would strike again in the fourth inning, this time it would be Laila Christopherson (running for pitcher, Rian Schlief who reached first safely on another Manson defensive miscue.) Southeast Valley would plate three combined, two in the fifth and one in the sixth to bring their final run count to six. Kenna Scott and Chloe Lambert would score in the fifth as a result of two hard hit singles and Lauren Eslick would mark the sixth and final run of the game after reaching first safely and stealing three bases. 

The pitching duo of Rian Schlief and Chloe Lambert proved to be a tough matchup for the Cougars. Together, Schlief and Lambert faced 29 batters. They allowed zero earned runs (a nod to the defensive efforts behind them) and struck out 10 while walking just two batters. 

The Jags look to carry the momentum from Friday’s win into their next week of games. The Jags have three consecutive home games against Emmetsburg (Wednesday), Clarion-Goldfield-Dows (Thursday), and Alta-Aurelia (Friday).