Ishpeming’s Payton Manninen delivers a pitch during the first game of a high school softball doubleheader against Hancock on Thursday at Barry Givens Field at the Driving Park in Hancock. (Houghton Daily Mining Gazette photo by David Archambeau)

HANCOCK — While their bats are not quite up to the speed that coach Randy Heinonen would like them to be at this point in the season, the Hancock softball team’s fundamentals on defense are right where he would like them to be.

The Bulldogs’ defense shone all afternoon as they swept a young Ishpeming squad, 5-1 and 10-0, on Thursday at Barry Givens Field at the Driving Park in Hancock.

The fundamentals that Heinonen prides his team on were on display just moments into the nightcap when pitcher Sadie Biekkola attempted to throw out Hematites hitter Emily DeMarois at first base, but her throw sailed over the head of first baseman Emilie Pierner.

As the ball sailed to the fence beyond Pierner, right fielder Josie Hembroff sprinted down and fired a hard throw to second base, beating DeMarois to the bag.

Ella Storm had a key throw later in the game that kept the Hematites from being able to generate much in the way of offense.

“We work on it every day,” Heinonen said. “We work on that more than anything in practice, and it showed today. Josie Hembroff was awesome. Ella Storm was awesome. Our whole group was just great defensively.”

With the Bulldogs struggling throughout the afternoon to get hits off Hematites pitcher Payton Manninen, strong fundamentals were quite important. They became key to helping the team improve to 10-2 on the season.

“Well, you’re going to give up hits, you’re going to give up runs,” Heinonen said. “It’s just limiting it. When you play fundamental ball, you can limit the runs, and that’s what we did.”

On the other side of the field, the Hematites struggled even more than the Bulldogs did to help Manninen out. Coach Ben McGuire felt his team played better than they had in getting swept Wednesday at Westwood, but he would still like to see his group give Manninen more help.

“We were really bad (Wednesday), so we made a lot of improvement,” he said. “My pitcher threw well, (but our) defense let her down a little bit.”

After throwing seven innings against the Patriots on Wednesday, Manninen threw all seven in the opener and six of seven in the nightcap Thursday.

“She’s a competitor,” McGuire said. “She’s such a great competitor, and just goes out there. She was having issues, the mound was kind of popping up, it was kind of goofy. So she was having a few issues with that, but she just fights through it.”

In the opener, the Hematites got on the board first as Manninen walked while at the plate and later scored on a single by Brynn Lanala in the bottom of the first inning. However, Ishpeming could not muster another run the rest of the afternoon.

The Bulldogs struck three times in the top of the second to take control.

Brooke Koskela got things going with a walk. Megan Pelto followed with a double to center field, scoring Koskela, with Storm and Sofie Freeman adding RBI singles.

The game remained 3-1 Bulldogs until the sixth. Koskela got things going again, this time with a single that snuck down the third-base line. Sydnie Scholie then singled to right field, scoring Koskela. Scholie then scored on a single to left field by Alice Larson.

The Hematites attempted a rally in the bottom of the seventh they nearly pulled off. After Miley Phillips singled and Maggie Beaudry and Britt Pitroski walked, the base were loaded with one out. With a chance to even the game with just one swing, Ava Jo Hares and DeMarois both struck out, ending the threat and the game.

In the nightcap, after Hembroff’s key play in the top of the first, the Bulldogs were poised to do some damage in the bottom half with Phillips on the mound for the Hematites.

Kaisa Salani drew a walk. She advanced to third before Koskela walked. Koskela then stole second, putting both runners in scoring position. Scholie then scored Salani with a sacrifice, and Koskela scored on a throwing error just after, putting Hancock up 2-0.

In the bottom of the second, the Bulldogs’ offense was back at it as two walks and two singles brought home a run while loading the bases.

Manninen stepped back in to replace Phillips on the rubber, but Koskela reached on a fielder’s choice, scoring Storm. Scholie then singled to left field to drive Salani home and extend Hancock’s lead to 5-0.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Bulldogs’ offense found its groove. Freeman walked and was eventually moved into scoring position on a sacrifice fly by Salani. Koskela then got to first on a pop-up in the infield that was misplayed by the Ishpeming defense. Pelto drove the ball to the center field fence to score both Freeman and Koskela. Pelto then scored on a Mallory Sporalski single to center field, pushing the Bulldogs’ lead to eight.

In the bottom of the fifth, Storm singled to left field. Pierner sacrificed to move her to third. Freeman then singled to score Storm. She then stole second and third, putting the game-ending run just feet from home plate. Koskela singled to left field to bring her home, ending the contest.

Biekkola threw 128 pitches with 11 strikeouts in the opener. She threw only 49 in the nightcap with four strikeouts.