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MAXWELL — It seems like it started only yesterday, but the 2021 softball season is over for the Upper Lake Cougars after their 11-2 non-league loss to Maxwell High School on Monday afternoon in Maxwell.

Just like that.

The COVID-19-abbreviated season was a whirlwind tour for head coach Nick Williamson’s club, which opened with an 8-6 loss to Clear Lake less than two months ago. In between their Clear Lake opener and Maxwell finale, they won five of seven games for a 5-4 overall record.

“At least we got something,” Upper Lake head coach Nick Williamson said of the shortened 2021 campaign, that after a 2020 season that was only six games old when play was shut down because of the coronavirus outbreak in mid-March of that year. “The seniors got a few more games, I was happy about that.”

In Monday’s season finale at Maxwell, both teams had six hits. It was a wild streak by Cougars starting pitcher Karlee Zimmerschied — most of her eight walks coming in the first two innings — that enabled the Panthers to build a 6-2 lead.

“We also had some key errors that allowed runs to score and they had some nice hits that scored runs,” Williamson said.

Down 4-0 after one inning, Upper Lake closed to 4-2 in the top of the second on back-to-back extra-base hits by Nathaly Velasco (RBI double) and Lexi Wurm (RBI triple), but that would be all the scoring for the Cougars.

Maxwell got those two runs back in the bottom of the second, went up 9-2 in the third, and added its final two runs in the fourth.
“We were hitting the ball but not making solid contact,” Williamson said. “When we did hit the ball hard, it was right to them or they made great plays on defense.”

Maxwell (10-6) played its second Lake County team in a row — the Panthers fell 6-5 at Lower Lake on Thursday — and still has three games remaining on its season schedule.

“They make us play hard, which I like,” Williamson said of a solid Panthers club.

Upper Lake’s head coach said he wished the team still had a few more weeks left to play.

“We’re just starting to get where we need to be, where we’re really starting to play,” he added.

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