By Jacob Heid

Sports Editor

AMHERST – The Amherst varsity softball team isn’t a stranger to close endings this season.
Two days after going into 10 innings with Manawa, a 1-0 Falcon lead bled into the seventh inning vs. first-place Weyauwega-Fremont on Apr. 27.
The home Falcons finished with a 3-2 win after a crucial double by freshman Aubrey Chandler led to a ground ball that scored the winning run.
“We haven’t gotten these big hits when we needed them late in the game. But we did some good things on the bases today,” Amherst coach Dale Jastromski said. “Of course, Aubrey coming in and getting that clutch hit. She’s had many hits for us all year, she just needed to get some to the grass, and she did it for us. It’s a huge win for us today.”

Everything was smooth sailing for the first two innings before the Falcons struck first on an RBI single in the bottom of the third.
That’s all Amherst needed for most of the game.

Senior Haley Peskie started in the circle for the Falcons and brought her best stuff. She had six strikeouts on the day.
Peskie and the defense cruised through the fourth and fifth innings and kept that 1-0 lead.

Amherst’s defense never budged, getting out of a jam in the sixth as well.
The 1-0 lead flipped to the Warhawks’ favor in their final plate appearances in the seventh.
Down to its final strike, Weyauwega-Fremont slapped a pitch to center that ended in two runs scoring.
The Falcons needed one run to extend the game but got more than that.
With runners on first and second, Chandler stepped up in a big moment for her team. The freshman sliced a ball into left that just caught the inside of the foul line, leading to a double and a 2-2 game.
She talked through her at-bat afterward.
“I could hear my teammates cheering me on the whole time, and they are my biggest supporters.”
The freshman also talked about stepping up to the plate and what this win means as a player.
“I don’t know, I get in my head a lot, but I think it’s all a mental game,” Chandler said. “It puts a big smile on all of our faces and proves that we can do this.”
Chandler’s game-tying double led to senior Kaylie Orsund scoring from third on a ground ball by freshman Calee Schulist to walk it off.