It was a loss, but improvement was evident in Oak Harbor High School’s 5-0 softball setback in Everett Thursday, April 28.

Everett (5-1, 12-4), which placed second in the 3A state tournament last year, throttled the Wildcats 23-0 March 25.

In that game, the Seagulls slugged 22 hits in five innings against several Oak Harbor pitchers. Half of runs were unearned because of Wildcat errors.

In the latest matchup, Oak Harbor pitcher Tricia Sarns limited Everett to six hits and was backed by an errorless defense.

What remained the same: Oak Harbor struggled against Seagull pitcher Sydney Taggart. In the first game, Taggart limited Oak Harbor to one hit and struck out nine. Thursday, the Wildcats collected three hits but fanned 14 times.

The Oak Harbor hits were registered by Audrey Howard, Cierra LeGendre and Lyndsay Duchnowski.

Stanwood (1-4, 4-11) plays in Oak Harbor (2-3, 4-10) at 4 p.m. Tuesday, May 3.