Heather Patterson shows off her range as the Oscoda shortstop fields a ball behind second base and throws out an AuGres-Sims runner on Saturday.
Brent Baker
Heather Spenceley puts everything she has into a throw to first base during Saturday's tournament.

OSCODA - May 5, 2007 - Oscoda's softball team claimed one victory and nearly had another Saturday as the Owls hosted a windblown round-robin invitational.

Oscoda outscored AuGres-Sims 15-11 in the opener, then fell to Rogers City 11-8 and tournament champ Hillman 11-7.

"We played great ball on Saturday," said Oscoda coach Mike Williams. "We should have at least been 2-1 for the invitational, but our errors just hurt us too much."

The Owls built a 9-2 lead against the Wolverines, then held on as AGS fought back and Oscoda committed some key errors to throw gas on the Wolverine fire.

Riley Shelton struck out four while earning the win.

The Owls gave Rogers City a challenge, taking an early 3-0 lead.

"We were very successful at putting the ball into play and making plays when we needed to," Williams said. "We held off the Hurons most of the game, but again had one inning where errors led to a number of runs."

Hillman built an 11-4 lead in the final game, then held off a final Oscoda rally.

"We played them close (for awhile," Williams said. "(But) again we lost our composure and let them score runs on errors."

The Owls scored three runs in the final inning but could get no closer.

"The Rogers City game was a true heartbreaker for us," Williams said. "We felt that was a game we gave away. We finally got the bats going strong, with a number of big hits for the girls.

"Heather Patterson was just amazing, with a triple, two doubles and a single in the first game."

Nikki Shugart, Lindsey Walker, Abby Samotis and Dana Kitchen also had key hits.

"This was the best series of games the girls have played," Williams said. "We continued to work hard on defense and pitching and got our confidence back at the plate. If we could just manage to get past that one inning each game where we allow for so many errors, we would be much more successful."