It wasn’t pretty. At times it was downright ugly, but through the eyes of the Kodiak softball team it was breathtaking.

During the first six games of the season, the Bears faced top-notch hurlers, struggled offensively and battled through defensive lapses. Kodiak turned the tables during its four-game home stand against Soldotna.

Taking advantage of a bushel of Star errors, walks and passed balls, combined with superior pitching from Kodiak, the Bears earned their first victories of the season, sweeping aside Soldotna 5-2, 15-0, 14-4 and 11-1 in four Northern Lights Conference games Friday and Saturday at East Addition Field.

Kodiak ups its league mark to 4-2, 4-6 overall, and climbs into second place in the conference ahead of Soldotna (4-7).

“I told them at the beginning of the game the worst thing right now is to not get to giddy and lose our focus,” said Kodiak coach Dave Allen, who was draped in silly string from Saturday’s post-game celebration. “They didn’t. They executed well, got the bats going and our pitching was good. We dug a few holes with the pitchers, but got bailed out by their teammates.”

As well as Kodiak executed, Soldotna was adjusting from a 14-hour ferry ride to get to the island — they arrived less than two hours before game time.

“We didn’t play very well. This is not the team that was playing last week,” Soldotna coach Dave Cleveland said. “There is no excuse, I didn’t have them ready. We weren’t used to the ferry ride. That was a tough one.”

That might explain why 17 of the 45 runs Kodiak scored were unearned. Soldotna pitchers combined to throw a combination of 24 wild pitches and passed balls to add to its 10 defensive errors.

However, Kodiak really didn’t need that much offense, because starting pitchers Tianna Allen and Mary Marsh were dialed in.

Allen, who opened the series pitching a one-hitter on Friday, finished what she started by tossing a no-hitter to send SoHi home on Saturday.

The southpaw struck out 11 on Friday — she had a stretch of 12 consecutive pitches for strikes during the third and fourth innings — and nine on Saturday.

The outings were a confidence boost for a pitcher who has labored throughout the season.

Three and a half weeks ago, during practice, a line drive caught Allen’s forehead and required 11 stitches. Since then the sophomore hasn’t been the same inside the circle.

That’s when Sue Ball ordered a face shield for Allen to wear when she pitches — the results have been tremendous.

“She worked a lot on her release. We have not only struggled with getting back in the saddle, but we did a slight transition with her pitching style,” Allen said. “At times, if I don’t keep in eye on her, she goes back to the old style, which slows the speed down and she is more apt to throw an outside ball.”

Allen, who grunts with every pitch, was clocked during practice last week at 53 mph.

Not to be outdone, Marsh was brilliant inside the circle limiting SoHi to seven hits — one on Friday —and four runs in seven innings.

“Mary was the perfect pitcher to go against Soldotna,” Allen said. “She throws a low pitch to a high pitch and their players have a baseball stance, which is hard for them to hit the ball.”

While the pitchers cruised, the offense got on track.

Coming into the series, Kodiak had scored only 12 runs to start the season, but Allen has been preaching to his players to be more patient at the plate.

The advice paid off to the tune of 32 walks throughout the four games.

When they weren’t getting free passes, the team combined for 26 hits — Cortnie Schultz and Caitlin Ball led the team with five apiece.

Elly Cornelius collected seven RBIs on four hits, including a triple in the first game Saturday.

Kodiak 5, Soldotna 2

Breaking into the win column Friday didn’t come easy for the Bears.

Allen walked the tightrope through the first three innings, walking four batters and hitting one more. However, only two of the runners came around to score on a two-out, two-run single by Racheal Maryott in the first inning.

Allen settled down issuing only one walk while striking out six batters through the final three innings — she completed the game throwing 106 pitches.

Meanwhile, Soldotna pitcher Vanessa Cleveland matched Allen inning-for-inning, giving up only one hit — a single to Ball in the first — through three innings.

The Bears finally got to Cleveland in the fourth, pushing a run across on an error by the Stars, to cut the lead in half 2-1.

One inning later, the Bears scored four runs on two passed balls, one error and a fielders’ choice by Elly Cornelius to take the lead 5-2.

The game was called in the bottom of the sixth due to a 90-minute time limit.

Kodiak 15, Stars 0

Feeding off the emotion from the first game, Kodiak sent 21 batters to the plate during the first two innings, scoring 11 runs.

Meanwhile, Marsh didn’t allow a runner past second base, finishing the game in the third inning due to the 10-run mercy rule.

Chelsea Filburn and Shelby Pruitt each collected two RBIs.

Kodiak 14, Soldotna 4

On Saturday, Kodiak broke a tie game open in the fourth, scoring 10 runs with two outs to end the game in four innings due to the 10-run mercy rule.

After Soldotna tied the game at 4-4 in the third inning, right fielder Emily Garner and center fielder Cornelius threw out Star runners attempting to score ending Soldotna’s rally.

Kodiak 11, Soldotna 1

Allen walked the bases loaded in the first frame, but averted disaster by striking out Shannon Lindley to end the inning unharmed.

Allen cruised after that, allowing only two base runners to reach base, both in the fourth inning, on a walk and hit batter.

The walk eventually scored on an illegal pitch by Allen. She completed the no-hitter with nine strikeouts.

Seniors Ball and Marsh played their last home games for Kodiak.

On Thursday, Kodiak travels to Seward.

Friday

Bears 5, Stars 2

Soldotna 200 000 — 2 1 4

Kodiak 000 14x — 5 2 1

Cleveland, Lindley (4) and Madden; Allen and Filburn.

RBI: Soldotna — Maryott. Kodiak — Cornelius.

Winning pitcher — Allen (11 strike outs, five walks). Losing pitcher — Cleveland (three strike outs, four walks).

Bears 15, Stars 0

Soldotna 000 — 0 1 5

Kodiak 654 — 15 6 0

Lindley and Gardner; Marsh and Allen.

RBI: Kodiak — Filburn 2, Schultz, Nault, Ball, Jones, Pruitt 2, Tirona 2. Triples: Kodiak — Pruitt. Two hits: Kodiak — Filburn.

Winning pitcher — Marsh (four strike outs, two walks). Losing pitcher — Lindley (five strike outs, nine walks).

Saturday

Bears 14, Stars 4

Soldotna 200 2 — 4 6 1

Kodiak 310 (10) — 14 10 2

Gardner, Lindley (4) and Madden; Marsh and Filburn.

RBI: Soldotna — Cummings. Kodiak — Filburn, Schultz 2, Ball, Cornelius 5, Norton. Doubles: Kodiak — Cornelius. Three hits: Kodiak — Ball. Two hits: Soldotna — McGown. Kodiak — Schultz, Cornelius.

Winning pitcher — Marsh (struck out five, walked three). Losing pitcther — Gardner (three strike outs, eight walks).

Bears 11, Stars 1

Soldotna 000 1 — 1 0 0

Kodiak 414 2 — 11 8 0

Madden, Lindley (3), Cleveland (4) and Gardner.

RBI: Kodiak — Schultz, Nault, Ball 2, Cornelius, Yngve 2. Doubles: Kodiak — Ball, Cornelius, Yngve. Two hits: Kodiak — Schultz.

Winning pitcher — Allen (nine strike outs, four walks). Losing pitcher: Madden (four walks).