Heights softball earns first win

When the girls’ softball season began a month ago, Wisconsin Heights coach Scott Wood said his No. 1 goal was to see improvement from his incredibly young Vanguards. Well, Heights is certainly succeeding in that area. After opening the season with seven straight losses, Heights broke into the win column with an 8-6 victory over Richland Center on April 14. The Vanguards, who have just one upperclassman on their 18-player roster, are now 1-7. “We are definitely a better team than we were at the start of the season,” Wood said. “So we’ll see how we finish out a very busy schedule.” Catcher Avery Graham had a terrific day for Heights, going 3-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI. Izzy Sutherland also drove in two runs and Alyssa Staplemann scored a pair of runs. Vanessa Wagner was the winning pitcher for Heights. She allowed just two hits and no runs in four innings. Sutherland then worked three innings in relief and picked up the save.  Heights raced to a 5-0 lead, stretched that to 8-2, then held off a late Richland Center rally. “After a rough start to the season with a very young team, we found a way to score enough runs and stop the bleeding before we got in trouble,” Wood said. • On deck: Heights hosted Dodgeville Monday, then hosted a doubleheader with Marshall on Tuesday. The Vanguards host Cambridge Thursday at 5 p.m., then travel to Barneveld April 29 at 5 p.m.