MAYFIELD VILLAGE—North showed few signs of rust in its conference opener at Mayfield on Tuesday.
Behind a five-inning no-hitter from Amanda Dobida and Olivia Augusta’s four runs batted in, the Rangers cruised to a 12-0 win over the host Wildcats.
“It’s been tough with the weather and going back inside,” said North coach Matt McPeek. “The girls have been putting in the work and we’ve been trying to keep them fresh. It’s been a challenge but you make the best of it and I know a lot of other teams are going through the same thing.”
Thanks to inclement weather and field conditions, North opened the season a week late with a loss at Brecksville on April 6 and then waited almost an entire week to hit the field again.
They made the most of their opportunity by pounding out 11 hits with two big innings to pull away from the Wildcats.
“We kind of spread it around and I was really happy with all the fireworks at the top of the order and how the bottom handled themselves to make things tough and put pressure on the defense by putting the ball in play,” McPeek said. “Maybe it doesn’t show up in the scorebook the same way as it does with the top of the order, but they did a nice job today.”
After a scoreless first inning, North put up six runs in the second.
Juliana Augusta reached on an error to start the rally and Dori Siekaniec hit a one-out single. Maddie Russo then walked to load the bases and Katie Bucy singled home two runs. Breonna Preston followed with a single to reload the bases and Alyssa McPeek hit a sacrifice fly to push the lead to 3-0. Dobida then hit a two-run double and scored on Olivia Augusta’s double to give the Rangers a 6-0 lead.
The Rangers added five more runs in the third.
Siekaniec and Russo singled in the inning while Preston and McPeek drew walks and Dobida was hit by a pitch. Olivia Augusta hit a three-run triple in the inning.
North added a run in the fourth and held off the Wildcats to invoke the run-rule an inning later.
Dobida allowed just two baserunners and both came in the first inning. One reached on an error and the other was hit by a pitch.
She finished the game with 13 strikeouts and she fanned the side in three out of the last four innings.
“Amanda kind of took that game over and then we started finally putting the barrel to the ball here and there when we needed to,” Coach McPeek said. “She loosened up as we got into it and she was probably throwing harder at the end of the game than she did in the first few innings. Credit to her and to the other girls for putting up some runs early; that’s usually a good formula.”
Siekaniec finished the game 3-for-3 with two runs scored and Olivia Augusta and Russo both recorded two hits in the win.
The Rangers travel to Kirtland on Thursday.
