Strong pitching, defense earns East home win

Williamsville East only played one softball game last week and made the most of it, defeating Hamburg, 3-1, on Friday, April 20 at Transit Middle School.

Pitcher Karen Kingsley threw a complete game four-hitter and was backed by great defense.

Hamburg came out swinging and put their second batter on with a single to left field. The attempted bunt to advance her resulted in a short pop-up that was caught by Kingsley. The runner was doubled up.

In the second inning, Hamburg's second batter hit a single to left field but Kingsley was able to strike out the next batter and force the third batter to fly out to right field.

Taylor Klun led off the second inning with a walk and was sacrificed over to second by Ally Kotz. Courtney Rung followed with a single to score Klun but was thrown out at second trying to advance after the hit. Third baseman Chelsea Horner hit a single, advanced to second on a walk to Anna Stolzenburg to third on a catching error and scored on a wild pitch.

Hamburg scored its only run in on a fielder's choice in the fourth. Kingsley struck out the next two batters. Hamburg only put one more runner on base the rest of the game as Kingsley hit corners of the strike zone and the defense made the routine plays.

East added an insurance run in the sixth with Rung's second hit of the game, and second RBI, drove in Klun, who was moved to second on a Kotz ground ball to first. Jessica Windnagle singled to open the threat but was forced out at second on a fielder's choice.

Six different East batters hit.

East (2-1, 1-1) played at Williamsville South on Monday, April 23 but results were unavailable before The Bee went to press. They host four straight games beginning at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 25 against Iroquois. East also hosts Amherst at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 26, West Seneca East at 5 p.m. on Friday, April 27, and Section V's Greece-Athena at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 28.