Softball: Butler, Deffner hit late HR's to rally Wausau West past Wisconsin Rapids

After losing the lead for the first time in the top of the 6th, the Wausau West softball team responded in the bottom of the inning with a 4 run outburst to rally past Wisconsin Rapids 7-5 in a Wisconsin Valley Conference game that was broadcast on the Wausau Area Sports YouTube channel. Kaitlyn Butler and Taylor Deffner each had home runs in the 6th for West.

Like in the first meeting of the teams on April 14th, the Warriors jumped out to an early 3-0 lead. In the bottom of the 3rd inning, West got on the board first with a pair of two-out RBI hits. First it was Jaidyn Calmes with an RBI single that scored Breanne Bushong to give West a 1-0 lead. Then, with runners on 2nd and 3rd, a Taylor Murkowski single to left that scored two runs and pushed the lead to 3-0.

Wisconsin Rapids got one back in the 5th and then took the lead in the 6th. An RBI groundout made it 3-2 and, with two out and runners on 2nd and 3rd, Layla Patraw doubled home both runners to give the Red Raiders their first lead at 4-3. In the bottom of the 6th, with one out and no one on base, Kaitlyn Butler homer to right center to get the Warriors back to even. Brooklyn Freiberg then walked, stole 2nd base and was driven home by Bushong on a double just inside the bag at 3rd base to regain the lead for West at 5-4. The Warriors weren't done in the inning as, with two out and Bushong on 2nd base, Taylor Deffner drove a ball near the same spot as Butler did earlier in the inning for a 2 run homer and push the West lead to 7-4.

Wisconsin Rapids would score a run in the top of the 7th to complete the scoring. Taylor Deffner, Jaidyn Calmes, Taylor Murkowski and Breanne Bushong each had 2 hits for West while Butler tossed a complete game to earn the win. Wisconsin Rapids had five different players record 2 hits but fell to 7-9 overall and 2-4 in the WVC. West wins for the 4th time in 5 games to move to 8-7 overall and 3-3 in the conference. The Warriors will travel to De Pere for a quadrangular Saturday and play games against De Pere at 10 am and West De Pere at 12 noon. Both of those games will be broadcast live on Wausau Area Sports starting with the pregame at 9:45 am on Saturday.