CMB softball hopes returners take program to next level

The Collins-Maxwell/Baxter softball team made great strides at the end of last season.

The Raiders won two playoff games on the road and nearly pulled the upset of state-ranked Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont in the regional semifinals.

That late-season finish and the fact that seven of the nine starters return in 2015 is something veteran coach Troy Houge is hoping can take his program to the next level.

The Raiders lost Abbie Haupert, their best hitter, and Taylor Ross to graduation, but the squad returns four seniors and both starting pitchers from last year’s 15-15 team.

“A lot of the returning players will be counted on to take us to the next level,” Houge said. “The girls are working hard and are ready for the games to get going. We have a number of girls who have played all spring so that’s showing in their practices.”

Practice officially started on May 11. And the regular season begins at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday when the Raiders host Gilbert in Collins.

Leading the way this year will be a host of returning starters, most notably senior MacKenzie Schmitz, junior Payge Jurgens and sophomores Mikayla Eslinger, Megan Ritter, Veronica Condon and Heather Jessen.

Haupert leaves behind a .374 batting average with 19 RBIs and 19 runs.

CMB hopes to fill the void with depth. Schmitz was second on the team in hitting at .317, and she had a team-high 14 steals and scored 19 runs. Ritter hit .304 with 19 runs and 14 RBIs, and Condon and Eslinger had batting averages of .289 and .265, respectively.

Condon drove in 17 runs and Eslinger hit two home runs. Jurgens returns to the middle of CMB’s lineup after smashing a team-high six home runs and recording a team-best 20 RBIs last year.

As a freshman, Jessen started 26 of CMB’s 30 games in the circle a year ago. She went an even 13-13 with an earned run average of 3.73. She struck out 60 batters in 169 innings pitched. Schmitz started the other four games, going 2-2 with an ERA of 5.91.

The other returning starter is Abbey Appelgate. Avery Hlavacek and Harlie Dunn also split time on varsity last year and Houge expects sophomore Abbey Kahler to handle some of the pitching duties in 2015. She was not with the team last year.

“After that, there are a number of girls fighting for spots,” Houge said. “There could be some surprises as the year goes on and a possibility of some girls playing ahead of girls who played last year.”

Houge anticipates position changes for some of the girls. That may cause the Raiders to get off to a slow start, but in turn could help the team as the season goes on.

The Raiders hit .277 as a team last year and the pitchers had a team ERA of just less than four runs per game. The defense committed just 69 errors in 30 games.

Working on the fundamentals of the game is something the team has been working on during the early stages of the season.

“Right now we are working on being aggressive and making sure our fundamental skills are good,” Houge said. “We have not done anything special yet other than making practices more competitive. We are trying to put them in as many pressure situations as we can to see how they handle it.”

The Raiders finished in the middle of the Heart of Iowa Conference standings at 9-8 last year.

CMB, and the rest of the league, could be chasing Prairie City-Monroe and Greene County for the conference title again in 2015.

Greene County scored 36 runs in its three regional games before placing third in Class 3A at the state softball tournament.

PCM won the conference title with a 16-2 mark. The Mustangs finished 22-8 overall and was ousted in a 3A regional final by West Burlington Notre Dame.

After hosting the Tigers in the opener Tuesday, the Raiders travel to Nevada on Wednesday and host Oskaloosa in a doubleheader on Thursday. The first meeting between CMB and Greene County will be on May 29 in Collins.