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Winnebago strengthens stance in Big Northern
By Christopher Johnson
Heading into mid-April play the Winnebago Indians find themselves looking forward to the upcoming next few weeks of the spring season. A lot of moves can be made.
The focus of the schedule turns much more visibly towards winnable head-to-head, home-and-away matches that will push the Indians up the ladder in the Big Northern.
Success has already been secured by the Big Northern’s fifth place seat-holder this season, sitting just games away from a double-digit win total through the early games.
To get to this point and carrying a 3-2 conference mark, the Indians won the games they were favored to win.
During the first few weeks of the season, Winnebago has lost three times. When weather permitted, they’ve achieved success at a 67%completion rate.
Wins accumulated over teams that carried a combined 10-32-1 record in non-conference game play. The Indians have outscored teams 57-45 on the season, overall to help support their 6-3 finding.
This past week Winnebago’s position within the Big Northern strengthened as they swept bottom-seated Genoa-Kingston in a Monday-Tuesday get to know you.
In game one on Monday, the Indians relied on strong starting pitching and the dis-allowance of offensive opportunity for the visiting Cogs.
The Indians opened the day in explanatory fashion as they powered home three runs and immediately put to question any concept of Genoa-Kingston coming up with a game plan that could result in early success.
Winnebago worked its 3-0 edge into the third before the scoreboard reflected change. The one run tacked on by Genoa-Kingston put them back within striking distance.
The Indians didn’t wait to respond as they plated one more. Into the fourth the match resumed the three score margin.
Over the next two innings of play Winnebago worked the offense and took advantage of what Genoa-Kingston’s defense was allowing.
By the top of the sixth the Indians were in front 6-1. Genoa-Kingston got the bats moving over the final two innings as they scored single totals in each of their final half-innings.
On Tuesday, one day after the three-run win in Winnebago, Genoa-Kingston got its chance to respond as they played host to the conference mover.
It didn’t start well for the host Cogs as Winnebago batted through the line-up and scored, nearly at will, during the opening minutes of play.
By the bottom of the first Genoa-Kingston was down 8-0 and looking to re-focus, quickly. They plated one run and moved into the second where Winnebago came right back.
Neither team would score again until the home third when the win-less Cogs scored its final run of the day.
As the fourth inning opened, Winnebago’s lead was 9-2 and it appeared a fairly responsive reaction to the run allowed was in order.
Batting through the line-up once more, the Indians scored seven times and put the match into “rules-shortened” region with one inning to go.
The afternoon ended with the Indians securing the conference sweep 16-2 and moving to 3-2, one loss back of Big Northern leading Byron.
