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Woodbury powers past Stillwater with three homers, extends winning streak

By Nick Gerhardt, SportsEngine, 05/10/17, 7:00AM CDT

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The Royals extended their winning streak to 12 games after defeating the Ponies 7-0.


Woodbury third base coach Bob Nickleby and senior Shannon Motzko are all smiles after Motzko's second inning homer against Stillwater. The Royals defeated the Ponies 7-0 Wednesday in Woodbury. Photo by Jeff Lawler, SportsEngine



Woodbury senior Ashley Mickschl throws a first inning pitch against Stillwater Wednesday at Ojibway Field in Woodbury. Mickschl threw a complete game shutout in the 7-0 Royals victory over the Ponies. Photo by Jeff Lawler, SportsEngine

Sometimes a leadoff hitter can’t change their nature.

With runners on first and third with no outs, Woodbury leadoff hitter Amanda Dickmeyer showed like she wanted to bunt, even after hitting two home runs in her first two plate appearances. Dickmeyer eventually drew a walk to load the bases, just like a good leadoff hitter does.

Dickmeyer and Shannon Motzko each hit home runs for the Suburban East Conference-leading Royals Wednesday in a 7-0 victory over Stillwater at Woodbury High School.

Woodbury, ranked No. 7 in Class 4A in the state coaches’ poll, jumped out to a 4-0 lead behind those home runs.

Dickmeyer led off the game with a home run to left center field and Motzko added a two-run shot in the second inning. Dickmeyer, who finished 2-for-3, capped the second inning with her second solo home run of the game to left center field once again.

It turns out easing the bat into a bunting motion is simply a timing device for Dickmeyer rather than a decoy.

“It’s more of a timing drill than anything,” Dickmeyer said. “I’m just trying to get in a good motion to go through the ball and get a good timing on the pitcher. I just use that method so I get a nice, easy bat plane.”

It’s not something Dickmeyer does every game, first-year Woodbury coach Michelle Welch said. However, it helped produce her first two home runs of the season.

“We like to hit,” Welch said. “We hit when we can. We haven’t had to go to a small game very often this year. We told the girls, ‘let’s hit this year’ and they’re doing well.”

The Royals (14-2, 11-2) have done a lot of hitting lately. In the midst of a 12-game winning streak, Woodbury has scored 10 or more runs in six of those games.

Motzko, meanwhile, finished 3-for-3 with two runs and two RBI. Jade Boisjoli added an RBI single in the fourth to make it a 5-0 lead and pitcher Ashley Mickschl drove in two runs with a single in the sixth inning.

Mickschl had all of her pitches working, especially her changeup in a one-hit shutout performance. Mickschl struck out eight hitters and walked just one.

“My changeup is one of my best pitches and our catcher Shannon (Motzko) calls a great game behind the plate,” Mickschl said. “She knows when to mix it up, when to keep it going. She called a great game as well.”

The No.9-4A Ponies (10-4, 8-4) entered the game tied for second place in the Suburban East Conference with Park of Cottage Grove and had a chance to gain ground on the Royals. But against Mickschl and her full arsenal of pitches working, Stillwater couldn’t put up much offense.

“The changeup is part of her repertoire, and it’s very difficult on the hitters, but her best asset is that she never puts the ball over the middle of the plate and she never puts it waist-high,” Ponies coach Bob Beedle said. “She’s on the edges of the strike zone even when it’s a ball, it’s only a ball by one ball or two balls at the most. She makes hitters make decisions on every single pitch that she throws.”

Amelia Kraft had the lone hit for the Ponies with a lead-off single in the third inning and moved into scoring position with a stolen base. But Mickschl retired the side with a pair of strikeouts and a pop fly back to her.

Stillwater pitcher Emma Murphy labored through three-plus innings and allowed five runs on eight hits. Murphy struck out one and walked none before giving way to Annalise Bell. Bell came on with runners on first and third in the fourth and no outs but got two fly balls and a strikeout to end the inning after issuing a walk to Dickmeyer to load the bases. Bell gave up two runs on three hits. She walked three and struck out one.

Since starting the season 2-2, Woodbury hasn’t lost. The Royals will face Roseville Friday before taking on second-ranked Anoka Saturday in Anoka.

“We had two losses early in the season and they set goals for themselves,” Welch said. “One goal was conference champs. We talked and said, ‘if you want to reach goal one, we’ve got to start putting things together’ and they did and it’s been awesome.”

First Report

Powered by home runs from Shannon Motzko and Amanda Dickmeyer, Woodbury muscled its way past conference rival Stillwater 7-0 at Woodbury High School on Wednesday.

Dickmeyer led off the game with a solo home run to left center field and Motzko followed with a two-run home run in the second inning.

Dickmeyer added another solo home run in the second inning as part of a three-run inning where the Royals (14-2, 11-2) took control.

Woodbury, ranked No. 7 in Class 4A in the state coaches' poll, came into the game with an 11-game winning streak and sat in first place in the Suburban East Conference. The No. 9-4A Ponies (10-3, 8-3) had an opportunity to gain some ground in the standings but the early damage was too much to overcome.

Royals pitcher Ashley Mickschl did her part, limiting Stillwater to one hit while striking out eight in the victory. Mickschl also added a two-run single in the bottom of the sixth to extend the lead to 7-0.

Amelia Kraft had a hit and a stolen base for the No. 9-4A Ponies in the loss. 


Stillwater's Haley Eder-Zdechlik attempts to turn a double play against Woodbury Wednesday afternoon. The Ponies lost to the Royals 7-0 in Woodbury. Photo by Jeff Lawler, SportsEngine


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