Lady Lakers lose at home

One night after playing one of the best softball team in Illinois, year in year out, to two close games, the Shakamak Lakers went the opposite direction against Class 4A power Bloomington South Saturday afternoon. The visiting Panthers clubbed the Lady Lakers 12-0, sending them to their third straight loss.

"This was just an absolute emotional let down," Lakers head coach Paige Wolf said. "We just did not come mentally ready to play today."

Wolf said there was not an intimidation factor in the loss, as the Panthers barely slipped by the Lakers by one run in extra innings last season.

Bloomington South wasted no time setting the tone early as they touched Lakers starter, Mikayla Crane, up for a four-spot in the top of the first inning.

The Panthers would tack on single runs in the second, third and fifth innings before scoring five more in the six inning.

The Lakers defense fell apart behind Crane as they committed eight errors. Half of the Panther runs were unearned.

"We had several mental mistakes today," Wolf added. "We had dropped balls, throwing errors and let them take extra bases because we were not paying attention. If it could go wrong, it went wrong for us today."

Casey Fougerousse was the lone bright spot as she recorded two of the Lakers four hits on the game. Kristi Pearson and Keshia Deschamp had the other two.

"Casey had a good game for us at the plate and played good defense in center field today," Wolf said of the junior.

Shakamak's game with Clay City Monday night was postponed and they will be back in action Tuesday when they play host to Washington with a varsity-only contest at 5 p.m.

"We just hope this doesn't happen again and hopefully we can learn from this and just prepare for our next game," Wolf said.

Bloomington South 411 015 -- 12 11 0

Shakamak 000 000 -- 0 4 8

Warthan and Utley; Crane and Pearson. W -- Warthan. L -- Crane (2-2). 2B -- Utley (BS), Beasley (BS).