Ishpeming’s Hailey Hytinen pitches to Houghton in a high school softball doubleheader played in Lake Linden on Tuesday. (Houghton Daily Mining Gazette photo by Jamie Glenn)

LAKE LINDEN — The Houghton softball team swept a doubleheader from visiting Ishpeming, 5-2 and 12-4, at the Boneyard in Lake Linden on Tuesday.

After Houghton built a 5-0 advantage in the opener, Ishpeming’s Willow LaChapelle got an RBI hit to bring Madison Pruett home for the Hematites’ first run. In the fourth, Myah McNab scored on a line drive hit to rightfield to cut the Gremlins’ lead to 5-2.

“That first game was a well played game,” Ishpeming coach Ben McGuire said. “Good pitching on both sides. We just didn’t hit the ball. I think we had six hits. We didn’t hit the ball hard. We put the ball into play, but we really didn’t hit it hard (so) we need to get more consistent doing that.”

The Hematites jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the nightcap after Pruett and LaChapelle scored early, but Houghton tied things up 2-2 in the bottom of the second, then took the lead when a fly ball was dropped for a triple to score another. The Gremlins added four more runs in the third for a 7-2 lead.

Houghton pitcher Josie Connors made short work of the Hematites after that en route to a 15-strikeout game.

“In the second game, they came out strong with their bats and we answered back,” HHS coach Melissa Baker said. “Josie pitched another good game but she had fielders to back her up.

“In the third inning we had hits that we put together and we were aggressive on the bases and made some things happen with that.”

The Hematites got two runs back in the top of the fifth when Pruett slid home off a dropped ball and LaChapelle ran home off a fly ball.

“(It was) a lot more of the same thing,” McGuire said. “Defensively, we had a couple of lapses and that hurt us. Pitching was pretty decent.

“I have a freshman pitcher (Hailey Hytinen) and a freshman catcher and that was the first time that our pitcher threw both games. I thought she did pretty well. (She) hung in there and threw some really good pitches. Other than that, we’ve got a lot of work to do before districts. We’ve got six games left.”