Northwest reclaims home invite

There was plenty of motivation for the Northwest softball team entering its home tournament Saturday.

The Vikings didn't win it for the first time in the tournament's history last year. This year, Class B, No. 1 Northwest reclaimed the home title after winning three games, including a 5-2 victory over Waverly in the tournament final at the Vets Softball Complex in Grand Island.

"That was definitely one of the talks that we had going into the day," NW coach Mitch Sadd said. "They really wanted to redeem what happened last year. The girls did a nice job today."

Northwest's Graclyn Simmons was one of the reasons the Vikings won their home tournament, especially in the championship game against Waverly. The freshman pitcher had 11 strikeouts despite giving up five hits, including a home run. On offense, she hit her first home run of her high-school career.

"That kid is just throwing lights out. She is really hitting her spots really well," Sadd said. "And Waverly has some good hitters and if we can jam them hard, they don't like get jammed. She did a great job taking their batters out of the game.

"And she hits her first home run of her career so she really had a great game for us."

It didn't take long for Northwest to get going against Waverly. After Kyra Ray reached on a single, she came in a Reyse Zobel RBI single. Zobel scored on a Waverly error to make it 2-0 after one.

Simmons' home run made it 3-0 in the second inning, and the Vikings added another run on a Ray RBI single to bring home Ava Smith.

Two errors in the top of the third allowed Waverly to get on the board as Alyson Recker scored on a wild pitch.

But Zobel hit a RBI single to score Ray to make it 5-1. Jillian Hild did hit a home run off of Simmons in the top of the fifth to cut into Northwest's lead, but that was all Waverly could do as time ran out in the bottom of the inning.

Zobel led the Viking offense by going 2 for 2 with two RBIs, while Ray was 2 for 2.

Northwest advanced to the championship after defeating Centura/Central Valley 9-2 and Scottsbluff 10-3 earlier in the day.

Against Centura/Central Valley, Zobel was 2 for 2 with three RBIs, a double and a home run, while Jolie O'Hara was 2 for 3 with two RBIs. Libby Loman got the win with six strikeouts, while giving up only four hits.

Against Scottsbluff, the Vikings hit four home runs in the win. Two of those came from Zobel, who was 2 for 3 with four RBIs. Smith and Laiken Dorsey hit the other two. O'Hara was 2 for 4 with two RBIs, while Becca Dinkelman was 2 for 3. Simmons gave up five hits but had six strikeouts in getting the win.

The Vikings finished the week 5-1 with the lone loss coming against Aurora . Aurora's Londyn Teahon hit a three-run walkoff home to give Northwest its first loss of the season on Tuesday.

Sadd admitted that the loss on Tuesday was a good thing to happen to the Vikings, who improved to 19-1 on the season after the tournament.

"We really needed that loss on Tuesday because we were so tight and were so scared to get that loss," Sadd said. "But that helped loosen them back up and that got their focus back. We had some great practices and it just woke them up."

As for the tournament, Sadd said it was a good day for the Vikings, who had been battling some illness. After their game at York on Monday, Northwest won't have another game until the Crete Invite on Saturday. Sadd said the Vikings need to have that time off.

"It was a great day for us but I had two girls who have not feeling the best today but they battled it out," he said. "Plus we've played so many games this week that we need to get through that game on Monday and get our kids healed and get some rest before the next Saturday."

Championship game

Northwest 5, Waverly 2

Waverly;001;01-2;5;3

Northwest;220;10-5;8;3

WP-Simmons. LP-Angle. 2B-W: Angle. NW: Dorsey HR-W: Hind. NW: Simmons.

Northwest Invite

Northwest 9, Centura/Central Valley 2

Scottsbluff 13, Boone Central 6

Aurora 10, NEN 5

Waverly 7, York 4

Northwest 10, Scottsbluff 3

Waverly 7, Aurora 6