By ISAAC DEER
TopSports.news
SILVER LAKE – Silver Lake handled its deepest rival, Rossville on Monday night with 5-1 and 5-0 Mid-East League wins in a doubleheader matching unbeaten softball teams that could make a deep run in Class 3A this season.
Silver Lake (6-0) has found its groove in the young season so far. Before the Eagles' sweep of Rossville, Silver Lake was coming off two enormous victories against Class 5A softball powerhouse Basehor-Linwood, who hadn’t lost a single home game since 2021 before the Eagles' victories.
Silver Lake junior Raely Sterling (5) is mobbed by her Eagle teammates after a first-game home run in Monday's doubleheader against Rossville. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Junior Avery Wende pitched a complete-game victory in Silver Lake's 5-1 first-game win over Rossville on Monday at Silver Lake. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
“I talked to the girls, and I told them, ‘Don’t worry about the scoreboard and just go play their game,’ ” Silver Lake coach Nick Hamilton said. “Every girl has a job, and they’re doing it. I think for once, I’m really feeling the name on the front of their shirt is bigger than anything else on the field right now. That’s been important for us this year. Just focus as a team.”
Silver Lake’s offense has helped balance the team’s overall success. In the twinbill against Rossville, the Eagles had multiple players have standout games.
In Game 1, Taylor Zordel and Raely Sterling had two-hit games, while most of the lineup contributed hits and walks.
Game 2 was similar to the offensive production. Kira Lowrey, Zordel and Kaibryn Kruger significantly impacted the win at the plate.
In addition to the offensive output, excellent starting pitching has contributed to Silver Lake’s scorching hot start this season.
Junior Avery Wende and sophomore Kendra Cook have gone through their season without setbacks and are thriving with undefeated starts.
Wende and Cook both earned wins against Rossville on Monday night. The duo kept Rossville’s stellar offense relatively quiet. The starters allowed one combined run, six hits and fanned seven batters.
“The biggest thing is that they’ve adapted well to our new pitching coach, and they trust their defense,” Hamilton said. “They’re throwing pitches knowing it’s going to get hit, they’re trusting those girls to make plays. I think that’s a big step for them because that’s tough to do in high school ball.
"When you keep the ball in the park, you have girls that can make plays. You saw (Taylor) Zordel make that backhand (play); she can go make some plays. I got some girls that are competitive, they just want to go compete.”
Wende rolled in her start for game one, which allowed Silver Lake plenty of flexibility on offense.
Rossville would get its only run of the day in the top of the second inning from a Brinley Dyche RBI single, and it would be all Silver Lake after that.
In the bottom of the second inning, Silver Lake would take a 2-1 lead from the bat of Taylor Zwygert, who hit a two-run single.
From innings four through seven, Wende would keep Rossville hitless, with most of the outs coming from contact.
“I’m just not letting certain things faze me,” Wende said. “When you think about Basehor or a team like Rossville, they’ve had some really good games and are strong teams. I’m just thinking about me and the batter, nothing else. I just trust my mechanics, and I work really hard in the offseason. Trusting my mechanics has helped me carry that over and lean on my defense when it doesn’t work.”
Makenzie McDaniel added another Silver Lake run with an RBI single in the bottom of the third, while Sterling had her own RBI single in the bottom of the fourth to give the Eagles a 4-1 lead.
Silver Lake would hammer in the nail for Game 1 after Sterling hit a deep solo home run to give the Eagles a 5-1 lead in the sixth inning.
That 5-1 lead stayed put as the Eagles would win the first game of the doubleheader.
“I think there are a lot of things that have happened in the last couple of years that got these girls wanting to go prove that we’re still the Silver Lake we were,'' Hamilton said. "A lot of tradition and a lot of exchanging in coaching staffs and teachers in our school. I think these girls are doing a good job of coming out and trying to live up to that tradition.”
Silver Lake got the scoring started in the second inning of Game 2. Lowrey would come home on a passed ball after getting on with a hit. Shortly after Lowrey’s run, Cook scored Kaibryn Kruger with a single to give the Eagles a quick 2-0 edge.
K. Kruger would pay it forward with an RBI in the bottom of the third inning to give the Eagles a 3-0 cushion.
After Cook’s dominant first three innings, Rossville had some traffic on the basepaths for the first time in the second game. With one out, Rossville had two runners on base. But Cook would lock in and retire the next two Dawgs on groundouts scooped up by McKinley Kruger to end the inning.
Cook’s calmness in working out of a tight jam and poised presence in the circle allowed her to keep the shutout alive.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Silver Lake would stretch its lead further with K. Kruger’s mighty double that brought two runners home to give the Eagles a 5-0 lead.
Cook saw seven batters in the next two innings and kept Rossville off the scoreboard to help Silver Lake remain undefeated with the 5-0 win.
“We definitely have that motivation now to come back stronger than we were last year,” Wende said. “We were all super disappointed and we all take this sport super seriously, so we’ve always stayed later, we don’t leave practice until we’re perfect, and we put a lot of work in. And we all enjoy (softball) a lot.”
GAME 1
SILVER LAKE 5, ROSSVILLE 1
Rossville 010 000 0 – 1 2 1
Silver Lake 021 101 X – 5 11 1
W – Wende. L – Dyche. 2B – Silver Lake: Zordel, Hanni. HR – Silver Lake: Sterling.
GAME 2
SILVER LAKE 5, ROSSVILLE 0
Rossville (8-2, 4-2) 000 000 0 – 0 4 3
Silver Lake (6-0, 2-0) 021 020 X – 5 7 0
W – Cook. L – Spielman. 2B – Silver Lake: Zordel, K. Kruger. Rossville: Spielman.
