Raiders rough up Patriots

SELMA — Opposing hitters had a tough time figuring out Jay County pitcher Larissa Boles last season.
Wapahani made it look easy Saturday.
The Raiders touched up Boles for 11 hits and eight runs in the first game, then turned around and exploded for 15 hits during a five-inning game two, sweeping the Jay County High School softball team in a season-opening doubleheader for both teams.
“They are a very good hitting ball team,” said JCHS coach Doug Arbuckle, whose team fell 8-2 in the first game and 11-1 in the second. “Hats off to Wapahani. They put the bat on the ball and made us make some plays.”
In game one against Boles, Wapahani (2-0) grabbed a 3-0 lead in the second inning thanks to an RBI single to right field by Kerri Myers and a two-run single up the middle by Angelica McKibben, a Portland native. McKibben led the Raiders’ offensive effort by going 6-for-8 with a two-run home run, two doubles and seven RBIs.
“They wanted to jump on her,” Wapahani coach Jacci Glancy said of her team against Boles, who was 18-2 as a junior. “They knew that’s one of the things we had to do to beat them because she’s a big part of their team.
“(We) had 11 hits on a pitcher that had great stats last year.”
The Raiders tacked on four more runs in the fifth thanks to an RBI double by Karli Conwell and a two-run single by Regan Rose.
Meanwhile, Wapahani pitcher Kaija Aikman made easy work of the Patriot batters. The junior took a no hitter into the sixth inning before JCHS senior Courtney Finnerty broke it up with a blooper behind second base just out of the reach of a diving McKibben at shortstop. Finnerty and the Patriots broke the shutout two batters later on an RBI double by Catherine Dunn — she and freshman Kady Finnerty led Jay County with two hits apiece — but back-to-back strikeouts stranded Dunn at second.
Aikman struck out 10 — six on called third strikes — while surrendering just three hits in seven innings of work.
Those called third strikes left Arbuckle disappointed.
“We looked at a lot of third strikes,” said Arbuckle, whose team hosts Blackford at 5 p.m. today for its home opener. “We have to do a better job of being a defensive hitter when we have two strikes on us.
“We got caught with the bat on our shoulders way too many times to get anything going.”
It was almost the same story for the Patriots in game two, this time with McKibben in the circle. She struck out a half dozen, keeping the ball low in the strike zone causing Jay County hitters to swing over top of it.
She helped her cause at the plate as well, going a perfect 4-for-4 with a two-run home run and a two-run double as the Raiders struck for eight runs in the fourth inning. 
Wapahani sent 14 batters to the plate, capitalized on a pair of Patriot errors and tallied seven hits to chase Patriot starter McKayla Norris from the game without recording an out in the fourth. 
It was an offensive effort Glancy has come to expect from her Raider squad.
“I definitely feel like our lineup can be very potent when we want to be,” she said. “I feel like we can play with anybody.”