NORTH COLLINS — Head coach Jan Warren stressed that he wanted to see improvement out of his North Collins Lady Eagles’ defense, despite a big 23-7 win against Ellicottville on Thursday night.

Friday, his team responded with a shutout over Pine Valley, 6-0, in a CCAA Division 2 East softball game at North Collins High School.

North Collins’ starting pitcher Rebecca Holmes certainly did her part, limiting the opposition to very few balls put in play. Holmes struck out nine batters and only walked two, while allowing five hits and no runs over seven innings of play.

“She’s been getting better and better,” said Warren of his pitcher.

On the balls that were put in play, North Collins (6-8, 4-3) handled them with relative ease.

“The plays that should’ve been made were made,” said Warren. “It was nice to see.”

Pine Valley (4-6, 3-4) kept the game close through four innings, trailing 3-0 heading to the fifth inning. In the bottom half of the fifth frame, however, North Collins doubled its lead with a three-run inning.

North Collins managed seven hits against Pine Valley’s starting pitcher, Malori Waag. She finished with six runs allowed on those seven hits, with six walks and five strikeouts over six innings in the complete game loss. North Collins tallied 18 hits the night before against Ellicottville.

“We need to be more consistent,” said Warren of his offense, but did praise Hailey Jasinski and Emily Winter for their multi-hit games once again, for the second night in a row.

Jasinski had two hits, including a double, with two RBI. Winter was 2-for-3 with a run scored.

North Collins has a rematch with Ellicottville again on Monday, for the second game in less than a week against their division foe.

Gowanda 17, Catt./Little Valley 13

GOWANDA — The Gowanda Lady Panthers trailed by a run after the top of the first inning, but wouldn’t be held down on Friday. The Lady Panthers scored five in the first inning, another five in the second, then four in the fourth and three in the sixth, amounting to a 17-13 win over Cattaraugus/Little Valley on Friday evening at Gowanda High School in a CCAA Division 1 East softball game.

Gowanda (7-3, 3-2) batted around in the first and second innings. After two frames, the Lady Panthers led 10-4.

“We were really concentrating on being more selective offensively,” said Gowanda head coach Tyler Thompson. “I was very impressed with how we answered back offensively.”

Abby Valone led the way offensively for Gowanda with five hits. She was 5-for-5 including a double and a triple, with five RBI and four runs. Zoey Kota pitched all seven innings for Gowanda, but her damage came at the plate. She was 4-for-5 with a pair of runs and an RBI. Maddie Clark was also 4-for-5 with two runs, including a double and three RBI.

Kota earned the win, with only six of the 13 Catt./Little Valley runs charged as earned runs. Catt./Little Valley scored four runs in the seventh inning after Kota fatigued.

Gowanda plays next on Monday at Olean.