HOUGHTON- While the Houghton baseball team swept the visiting Hancock Bulldogs in a doubleheader on Friday, the girls’ softball team was doing some spring cleaning of their own at the same time on their side of the field. They swung their way to a sweep of the Calumet Copper Kings with scores of 11-3 and 1-3.

In the opener, the Gremlins jumped on the scoreboard early and never looked back. Shortstop Clea Ollenketo opened the game with a triple and scored to a Stella Soumis single. After a scoreless second, the Gremlins added two more runs in the third with Bryn Arko and Fayah Zapolnik both scoring on a Kenzi Collard base hit to left. They would add four more tallies in the bottom of the fourth to make it a 7-0 Gremlins lead.

However, the Copper Kings were not going home with a goose egg in their column. They opened the fifth frame with three runs of their own. Brooke Pomroy, Dana Berg and Ella Newman all got hits and scored to make it a 7-3 game. However, that is as good as it got for the Copper Kings.

Meanwhile the Gremlins would tag on four more runs. Houghton’s pitcher Soumis would blank Calumet in the sixth and earn the complete-game win at 11-7.

“This was the better of our two games today,” said Calumet couch Joel Rastello. “We hit the ball well but right at them.”

The second game was all about the Gremlins and their bats. They poured it on swing after swing and sent the Copper Kings north after just three innings (15-run mercy rule) with an 18-3 score.

“The girls are playing with a lot of energy despite not having a lot of time on the field this spring,” said coach Mel Baker of the Gremlins. “That and solid pitching and fielding are all good things to see at this stage of the season. To sum it up, we are playing well together as a team.”

Up Next

The Gremlins travel to Iron Mountain today to take on the Mountaineers in a 4 p.m. doubleheader.