Lady Bucks continue offensive surge in doubleheader sweep of Benton
By Bees O’Brien
BENTON- As the season slogs through a scheduled filled with makeup games and cancelations, there’s one thing that is becoming clear within the District 4 1A field, Bucktail is the team to beat. It’s not a case of over confidence, but rather just taking a quick comparison of common opponents and the Lady Bucks’ results through five regular season games.
Their offense has been rolling and Tuesday afternoon at Mid Penn Conference rivals Benton, the offense was operating on hyper-drive.
Bucktail would collect 35 total runs on 25 hits in a pair of games against the Lady Tigers that were never in doubt. Bucktail would win game 1 by a 15-0 count and would continue their early season dominance in District 4 1A play with a 20-0 victory in game number two.
Bucktail quickly ended any hopes that Benton had in the first game by crossing the plate 9 times in the top of the first inning. The Lady Bucks would add 3 more runs in each of the final two innings to make quick work of the Lady Tigers in a 3-inning, 15-run victory.
Gigi Balchun continued to impress batting from the number 9 hole by going 3 for 3, while driving in a pair of runs. Mak Wagner and Makenna Stone both would have multiple hit games. Wagner would collect a double, single and 4 runs batted in. Stone added 3 RBI’s.
Lola English, Kendall Wagner and Eva Sockman also added hits for Bucktail.
Makenna Stone would toss the first of two Bucktail no hitters on the day. Stone would strike out 7 Lady Tigers in the quick 3 inning victory.
Game number 2 would see Mak Wagner and Eva Sockman combine on a 3-inning no hitter. The Bucktail duo provided fireworks with their bats too. Both Wagner and Sockman would smash home runs. Wagner finished with 3 hits and 6 runs batted in. Sockman added a double to her home run and collected 4 RBI’s, while extending her current hitting streak to 23 games dating back to last season.
Bucktail’s 12 run first inning would all but lock up their fifth straight win to start the 2024 season. They would only bat one more time, that being their 8-run bottom of the second at bat.
English, Stone, Kendall Wagner and Matti Mason would all collect a pair of hits each.
Balchun and Riley Salizzoni both added singles on the day.
Bucktail will next be in action today when they host Millville and tomorrow in Farwell against Sugar Valley, with both games being at the mercy of the rain.
On Friday the Lady Bucks are set to get their first big test when they travel to defending District 6 1A champions West Branch.
