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Badger ball begins with softball victory, baseball defeat
KAITLYN HUPP KHUPP@ LAKEGENEVANEWS.NET
Left: Sophomore Miah Butinas pitched 5 innings in the 2026
season opener.
Below left: Badger baseball comes into the dugout to switch from
fielding to hitting.
KAITLYN HUPP PHOTOS
Below right: Ryan Albanese hits a ground ball to left field
earning him a single.
Lake Geneva Badger opened their spring ball season with a softball and baseball double header against Milton with a win for the softball team and a loss for the baseball team on March 31.
Badger Softball
Badger softball won the matchup 11-0 with three runs in the first inning, one run in the third inning, four runs in the fourth inning and three runs in the fifth.
Senior Danyelle Challe led the team with three runs scored, senior Louise Blakely and sophomores Lucee Pond and Miah Butinas each had two runs scored, and sophomores Ella Anderson and Meadow Nurnberg had one run each.
Senior Lillian Butinas had five RBIs for the night, Challe had two RBIs and Miah Butinas had three RBIs.
Miah Butinas pitched the entire game for the Badgers.
Badger Baseball
Badger baseball started the season off rough with a 10-0 loss in seven innings.
"Not the way we wanted to start the season, but going into it, we knew that they were going to be a really good opponent," Head Baseball coach Nick Hughes said. "I saw some good things from our guys, we just didn't get the big hit when we needed it. And then we got kind of further and further behind and it just, we dug a hole too deep to dig out of it."
Going into the game, Coach Hughes knew they would use a few pitchers throughout the innings to get them to build up their arms and play some varsity minutes.
When looking to improve, the team wants to limit the number of walks, in which they had six in the game, and want to keep cleaning up some minor things going forward.
Big Foot Softball starts season with win over Belleville
KAITLYN HUPP
Sophia Kinane scores the first run to put the Chiefs on the
board in their home opener against Belleville.
KAITLYN HUPP
Big Foot Softball kicked off their season with a five -inning, non-conference home opening win over Belleville on Friday, March 27. The Chiefs won 12-2, with eight runs scored in the fourth inning alone.
Freshmen Kyleigh Nickels pitched the entire game for the Chiefs that gave her a 1.40 ERA so far, and Cassidy made key plays at shortstop.
"If you have a great, great pitcher, you're gonna do great things," Head coach Troy Hummel said. "As a freshman coming in, I thought she did a fantastic job. Eight strikeouts and three walks."
Sophomore Sophia Kinane hit a triple and a throwing error on Belleville to get the Chiefs on the board and Junior Leah Paulsen and Kyleigh Nickels each had a double.
"Super proud of our young team," Coach Hummel said. "Going into the season, I say it many times, we are a young team, but that's not going to be a crutch to say we're not going to be successful. We just know that we're going to have to have more grace and more time to learn certain situations throughout the season."
Freshman first baseman Brooklyn Stewart hit the walk off RBI that won the Chiefs the game.
Kinane, Stewart, Cassidy Vilona and Senior Kate Hummel all recorded two runs, and Paulsen, Nickels, Senior Claire Patek and Junior Skylar Mahley recorded one run each.
Hummel, Paulsen, and Nickels each had two RBIs for the game.
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