GREEN MOUNTAIN - The hits were nearly even.
Thanks to winning a category you don't want to have more of, the scoreboard went against the Wolverines.
Janesville picked up a 15-6 win over GMG in a matchup of teams that entered Wednesday tied in the Iowa Star Conference softball standings.
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T-R PHOTO BY MARK PAWLAK
GMG second baseman Abby Kulhavy, left, and Katie Watson of Janesville look to the umpire for the call at second base during Wednesday’s Iowa Star Conference softball game in Green Mountain. Janesville won 15-6.
The Wolverines had nine hits compared to 11 for the visiting Wildcats. Definitely not an insurmountable deficit.
Yet GMG saw eight errors and a combined 11 free bases between walks and hit batters help Janesville's cause.
On a 100-degree day, the Wolverines (6-13, 6-6) had two hits in each of the first three innings in a 4-4 game after three frames.
The Wildcats (16-9, 7-5) scored the game's next 11 runs to jump ahead in the race for fifth-place in the Iowa Star.
"Too many walks, too many errors," said GMG head coach Phyllis Rodgers, "but we started out very well."
"The heat seemed to get to us," she added. "Our pitcher started walking people and we started making errors."
Peyton Mannan and Caitlin Appelgate both had three-hit games for the Wolverines.
Mannan finished 3-for-4 with a double and two runs scored. Appelgate also was 3-for-4 with a double and had two RBIs.
Abbie Duden, who went all seven innings in the circle, had two RBIs.
Janesville broke the game open in the fourth. Each of the Wildcats' five players that came around to score reached by base either by walk, hit by pitch or error. Janesville had only one hit in the frame, a two-run single by Katie Watson. The No. 6-hitter Watson ended the day 4-for-5 with a double and three RBIs.
The Wildcats then tacked on an additional run in the fifth, one more in the sixth and four in the seventh.
"You make errors and excuses, you get beat," Rodgers said.
GMG had back-to-back hits in the first by Mikaella Koster and Mannan, yet came up empty. The Wolverines tried a double steal and were tagged out on both ends of the attempt as Koster was out at home and Mannen tried to go from first to third on the play.
In the second inning, Duden singled in Emily Havelka, while Appelgate doubled in Duden's courtesy runner Chelsea Hurd to put GMG ahead 2-0.
Janesville countered with four runs in the third on two hits and three Wolverine errors.
GMG tied the game at 4-all in the third with Koster drawing a walk and Mannan doubling to start the inning. Duden had a sacrifice fly and Appelgate followed with an RBI single.
"We hit the ball well," Rodgers said. "We ran ourselves out of that one inning, but other than that, we didn't make many offensive mistakes."
Kendyl Sorge finished with three hits for the Wildcats. Victoria Lehy and Allison Hesse both scored three runs.
The Wolverines, which saw a season-best three-game winning streak snapped, close out Iowa Star play today with Class 1A No. 6 Don Bosco coming to town for a 5 p.m. game.