By Journal Sports Staff

PETOSKEY — The Negaunee softball team wanted to assess where it was as a team Saturday at the Petoskey Invitational and the Miners found out that they have room for improvement.

The Miners faced some of the best teams in the state and came up short in all three games. Negaunee lost a tight one to Onaway 1-0 followed by an 11-2 loss to Lake Orion and a 10-4 defeat to Detroit Country Day.

“We wanted to test ourselves and faced some really good pitching,” Miners head coach Randy Carlson said.

“We found out we have some work to do. We looked forward to this tournament because it gives you good check of where you’re at. We had a decent record going into today, but we also knew we hadn’t faced the strongest competition yet. Now we’ve seen what we need to work on and we’ll try to get better.

In the first game, Skylar Hall put forth an impressive performance in the circle for the Miners but it wasn’t enough. Onaway got on the scoreboard with a run in the first inning and stymied Negaunee the rest of the way.

Hall gave up one run and zero hits, while striking out 13 and walking one. Katelyn Lammi and Payton Drew both had hits for the Miners.

In the second game, Lake Orion put four runs on the scoreboard in the top of the first. Negaunee answered back with two in its half of the inning, but that’s all it could manage the rest of the game as Lake Orion pulled away.

Hannah Voskuhl hit a homer and drove in two runs to lead Negaunee at the plate.

The final game was similar to the first two. Detroit Country Day got hot early with four runs in the top of the first and held off a sixth inning Negaunee rally to hand the Miners their third loss of the day.

Kenzie Karki went 3 for 3 with a homer, while Abby Nelson had two hits for Negaunee.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Writer Ryan Stieg. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.