MARQUETTE – With the district tournament looming next weekend, the Marquette Senior High School softball Redettes are hoping to end the regular season with some momentum.

They got some of it going Friday as the Redettes swept Negaunee 10-0 in five innings and 8-1 in the second game.

Chelsea Wiggins notched both wins in the circle for Marquette after holding the Miners to only three hits on the day.

“It’s Senior Night, so it was nice to see the girls get a couple of wins,” Redettes’ head coach Paul Seibert said.

“Chelsea has been throwing very well and Aubrey (Reynolds-Erspamer) really came back tonight after struggling with her pitching (Thursday) night.”

Marquette got on the board in the first game with a run in the second inning on a fielder’s choice by Emilee Lamora and then erupted for six runs in the bottom of the third.

Amanda Gray and Wiggins stroked back-to-back RBI singles in the frame and Autumn Isip hit a two-run double.

Up 7-0, the Redettes padded their lead with two more runs in the fourth and finished the game off in the bottom of the fifth on a RBI single by Gray.

In the nightcap, Marquette took advantage of two crucial Negaunee errors to take a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the second.

In the third inning, Isip hit a base hit to right-center to score Hannah Bulinski, who had reached base with an infield single, and the Redettes went up 5-0

Negaunee got one of those runs back in the top of the fifth.

The Miners got on base thanks to a Marquette fielding error and later scored on a RBI bunt single by Marissa Symons.

However, the Redettes couldn’t be stopped. Isip smacked a single up the middle to score Dana Paquet in Marquette’s half of the fifth, and the junior knocked in two more runs with a base hit to centerfield in the bottom of the sixth to nail down the win.

“Marquette’s a good team, and we knew that coming in,” Negaunee head coach Randy Carlson said.

“They didn’t do anything that surprised us. They just executed better than we did and it seemed like their hits had eyes at times.

“They found holes and dropped in between the infield and outfield. We also made some errors, and those came back to hurt us.

“Wiggins is also one of the best pitchers in the U.P. and one of the difficult things for us is that we don’t see pitchers like that very often. That can make a difference.”

“Going into the playoffs though, I’m feeling pretty good,” he added. “We’ve been playing a lot better in the second half of the year.

“There are good teams in our district, but there’s nobody that I feel we can’t play with.

“It’s just a matter of going out and executing on the field,” he added.

Marquette closes out its regular season Wednesday with a home doubleheader against Escanaba.

Negaunee hosts Hancock in the Division 3 District Tournament on Thursday.

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 246. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.