BROOKLYN – Alexyn DuBois out-dueled Hailey Wetherby in the circle in the first game of a Cascades Conference softball doubleheader on Friday for a 5-3 Hanover-Horton win, and Columbia Central rallied to win in eight innings 7-5 in the second game.

DuBois struck out 13 and walked two in the first game, allowing no earned runs on two hits. She then struck out 14 in eight innings of work in Game 2, walking one.

“A lot of rise and screwball and I mixed in some changeups here and there,” she said. “Just really attack the strike zone as much as possible.”

Wetherby struck out seven in the first game, then came on in relief of Camden Knapp in the seventh inning of Game 2 and allowed no earned runs and no hits, striking out three. Knapp, in six-plus innings, struck out four and allowed one earned run.

“I think once she knows she has to work harder against a good-hitting team, that puts the pressure on her to throw it a little bit harder and move that ball,” Columbia Central coach Kylee Cochrane said.

A four-run third helped the Comets win Game 1. After Brooklyn Biela, Hanover-Horton’s No. 9 hitter, drew a lead-off walk, Ava Smith followed by reaching on an infield single. DuBois then doubled to center, scoring both.

“Anything close I knew I needed to drive it back and over the outfielder’s head,” she said.

Halle Swihart followed that with a two-run single to make it 5-2.

“We worked on it a lot in practice [Wetherby] throws a lot of outside stuff, so we wanted to make sure we covered that up,” Hanover-Horton coach Doug DuBois said.

Hanover-Horton had also gotten a run in the first as Amanda Ley led off with a single and later scored on an error.

Columbia Central scored runs in the first and second off errors, but then Alexyn DuBois took control, at one point retiring nine batters in a row and striking out six of those, including three batters in a row for the final two outs of the second and first out of the third.

“At that point I settled myself down on the mound and took it one pitch at a time,” she said. “In the first couple innings I would say I was more worked up and was just throwing, and the next couple innings I stepped up my game and was delivering my pitches.”

The Golden Eagles got some offense going in the final two innings. After Gianna Evans had reached on a dropped third strike to lead off the sixth, Rylee Knapp drove her in with a single.

“Going into this game I told the girls we’re going to celebrate the little stuff,” Cochrane said. “Anything that happens to get us on, a big play on defense we’re going to celebrate. I knew small ball, get the runner on, put pressure on the other team.”

In the seventh, a walk and a hit batter put two on, but Alexyn DuBois ended that threat and the game with a strikeout.

“We’ve got a lot of experience on the mound and we just worked through it,” Doug DuBois said.

In the second game the Comets got out to a 2-0 lead with a run in the first off an RBI single by Ley and another in the fourth when Tori King doubled to drive in Ley.

Evans hit an RBI single and Rylee Knapp added a sacrifice bunt to score a pair of Golden Eagle runs in the sixth to tie it, but Hanover-Horton jumped back in front when Haley Applegate singled to drive in Swihart and King hit a sacrifice fly to make it 4-2.

Down to their final out in the top of the seventh, Columbia Central loaded the bases, then scored a run on a wild pitch, and two more when Evans singled to center to score Camden Knapp and Kelsey Fausz.

Columbia Central then came within an out of ending it in the bottom of that inning, only for Smith to score on a wild pitch to force an eighth inning.

In the eighth, with Wetherby starting the inning on second as the bonus runner, the Golden Eagles got a run when she scored on a fielder’s choice. Columbia Central got a bonus run on a wild pitch.

Hanover-Horton got its bonus runner, Holly Zantop, as far as third in the bottom of the inning, but Wetherby got a strikeout, pop out to third, and grounder back to the circle to end the game.