Grafton pitchers receive All-NSC kudos

The Grafton High School softball team didn’t have the year it wanted, but a couple of Black Hawks earned postseason honors.

Freshman pitcher Sara Paschke and junior pitcher/center fielder Jordyn Case each received honorable mention in All-North Shore Conference voting by coaches.

Case hit .393 with an on-base percentage of .415. She had 24 hits, 10 RBI and 10 runs scored in league games.

Case was the No. 2 batter in coach Ken Hunt’s lineup. She led the Hawks in batting average and hits.

Case batted lefty, but Hunt said she wasn’t a slapper.

“Jordyn was more of our consistent base hitter,” he said.

“She has a pretty good softball IQ, knows where to be, how to run the bases and take advantage of things presented to her.”

Defensively, Case posted a .917 fielding percentage.

Paschke was unexpectedly thrust into a starting role after Grafton’s top two pitchers went down with torn ACLs and couldn’t play all season.

“Coming in at the end of last season, we’re thinking we could ease her into that a little bit and hopefully have her get some experience at the varsity level,” Hunt said.

When injuries began to mount, Paschke became the Hawks’ ace.

“She did a really nice job. It never really got too big for her,” Hunt said.

Paschke pitched 84-1/3 innings in the conference. She struck out 65 and walked 36 and had a 1.945 WHIP (the number of base runners allowed per inning). She had a .967 fielding percentage.

Paschke’s highlight was a shutout victory over Homestead.

At the plate, she batted .259 with a .317 on-base percentage. She had 10 hits and two RBI.

Her average, Hunt said, wasn’t indicative of the quality of her bat.

Hunt said he looks forward to getting both players back next year, along with standout pitcher Kirsten Krause.

The team loses only two players to graduation, and Hunt said a strong eighth-grade class of players will enter high school this fall.

Grafton finished 3-15 in the NSC and 3-20 overall.

Port Washington went 2-15 in the NSC and 3-17 overall in a rebuilding year under first-year head coach Ben Navigato. The Pirates didn’t have any all-conference selections.

Slinger went 18-0 in the NSC and qualified for the WIAA state tournament for the first time in school history. The Owls had four of the 11 selections on the all-conference first team, including both pitchers.

Slinger pitcher Kenna Retzlaff, a pitcher, was named North Shore Conference Player of the Year.