Like the sharp, piercing cry of an alarm clock disrupting the peaceful beginning of a Monday morning, the Winona State University softball team received a rude and abrupt wake-up call last week.
In what was undoubtedly the most crucial series of the year, the Warriors were swept out of first place in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference by rival and defending league champion Southwest Minnesota State University Thursday.
The alarm clock simile may be a bad one, however, as it was instead the muffled popping sounds of sophomore phenom Amanda Johnson’s pitches cracking the leather of her catcher’s glove that disturbed the groggy Warriors.
Johnson showed why she won league pitcher of the year honors as a freshman last season and why she was tabbed this season’s preseason pitcher of the year after throwing all 14 innings on the day and earning both wins for the Mustangs.
The right-hander, who broke the SMSU career strikeout record earlier this season, allowed just one hit — a Kelly Ward double in the fifth inning — and struck out nine in the 5-0 victory in the first game.
It was the first time since 2004 that the Warriors lost a conference game at home.
“It stings a little bit,” Winona State coach Greg Jones said. “But they were the better team. They outplayed us.”
Jones was referring to the second game of the twinbill as well, in which Johnson strode out to the mound for another start and walked off with her league-leading 18th victory of the season.
“You don’t see it a lot,” Jones said of Johnson’s back-to-back starts in the double-header. “You only see the best pitchers do it. The pitchers that are just dominant like she is — the All-Americans.”
Johnson, who is likely to repeat as pitcher of the year in the league and may very well be on her way to an All-American selection, out-dueled Winona State’s experienced senior, staff ace and reigning NSIC pitcher of the week Jenny Stannis, in the first game. She then topped two-time conference pitcher of the week Kristen Fossell in the Mustangs’ 5-2 win in the nightcap.
The only Warrior who managed to have any real success against Johnson was Winona State’s hottest hitter of late, Amanda Wilhelm, who took the seemingly untouchable Johnson deep in the fourth inning and tacked on an RBI single in the sixth to drive in the only purple runs on the day.
“We played like we were behind the whole time,” Wilhelm said. “It’s more of a wake-up call than anything. It should give us a boost to play harder.”
Jones agreed with his junior second baseman.
“They were the biggest games of the year and we played like we were scared,” he said. “That’s where the wake-up call comes. It’s our first bit of adversity in the conference season, and we’ll see if we can rebound from it.”
And rebound they did — in a big way.
Awake, refreshed and motivated, the Warriors took their frustration and aggression out on conference opponents in a five-game sweep at the final NSIC crossover in Aberdeen, S.D., over the weekend.
With precise pitching and hot hitting, the Warriors crushed the University of Mary (13-10), Minnesota-Crookston (9-1), Northern State (14-1), Bemidji State (5-3) and MSU-Moorhead (2-0).
Wilhelm, Lindsay Rosicky and Jenny Wilmes each recorded hits in all five games.
Rosicky, who went 6-for-7 in the two games Saturday, collected 10 hits and eight runs in 18 at-bats over the weekend. Wilhelm, who is batting .384 over her last 21 games and is hitting an alarming .431 in conference play, crushed a home run for the second straight game in the win against Mary and finished the weekend 9-for-20 with 7 RBIs. Wilmes added eight hits in just 13 at-bats.
But perhaps the most promising performance came from Chelsea Rosenow.
The junior centerfielder hit .356 with six home runs and 41 RBIs en route to being named to the all-conference team last season but was batting just .316 with a single long ball and 17 RBIs entering the weekend.
But, after crushing a grand slam against Mary, a two-run shot against Northern and finishing the weekend 8-for-13 with 12 RBIs, it appears that a sleeping offensive giant has been awakened.
But the first-place Mustangs (29-8, 14-0), who won their league-record 28th consecutive conference game Sunday, show no signs of falling asleep at the wheel and appear well on their way to a second-consecutive NSIC championship.
Unfortunately for Rosenow and the Warriors (33-14, 14-2), the wake-up call may have come too late.