March 28, 2024

Hawk softball goes unbeaten in home tourney

Plagued by errors, CMB loses twice

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SULLY — Lynnville-Sully’s softball team came into its home tournament Saturday with six players batting .426 or better and five who have contributed to the team’s 10 home runs.

But through four innings against Collins-Maxwell/Baxter’s Abbey Kahler, the Hawks managed just one run and three hits and were tied at 1 on the scoreboard.

But as Kahler and the Raiders found out, it’s tough to keep a strong hitting team down for seven innings.

Class 1A No. 7 Lynnville-Sully finally got the bats going in the fifth as the Hawks batted around with four hits and four runs in the frame and that was more than enough to slip by CMB, 5-2, in the opener of a three-team round robin tourney.

The Hawks then pounded out 14 hits and rallied from early deficit to blast Des Moines Christian 15-5 in five innings. CMB went 0-2 on the day following its 7-4 loss to the Lions (4-5).

The Hawks have won eight straight games and are 15-2 on the year.

“I think the strength of our lineup is that so many different players have proven they can produce runs,” Lynnville-Sully coach Stacey Alberts said. “We’ve had a good group of younger kids step up in the last few games and that has rounded out our batting lineup so that’s really good to see.”

The Hawks had one more hit (4) in the fifth inning than they had in the first four innings (3) combined. Sophomore Haley James, senior pinch hitter Bayli Van Manen and eighth-grader Maria Rasmusson began the fifth with three consecutive hits from the 7-8-9 spots in the lineup.

“Our system is mature enough that we try to get our younger kids some experience,” Alberts said. “We expect to get production from whoever we put in there. Even the players that don’t start varsity have assets that we will use and that makes us a stronger team.”

Rasmusson’s was an RBI double that tied it and three batters later, Brenna Lanser belted a two-run single with the bases loaded. The third run was able to score following a CMB error in the outfield and Lanser wound up on third by the time the Raiders got the ball back to Kahler in the circle.

Lanser and senior Madison Rasmusson were stranded in scoring position, but the damage had been done, and it was more than enough support for the elder Rasmusson, who surrendered four hits and struck out seven to get her 14th win in the circle.

“She threw very well this morning,” Alberts said of Madison Rasmusson. “She struggled a little bit last week, but we were still able to get wins. She had some pop and some movement on her pitches so that was encouraging.”

The game ended after CMB went down in order in the top of the sixth due to a tournament time limit. The Raiders suffered their second straight defeat after falling 2-0 in conference play on Friday night.

The Hawks struck first in the second inning as Madison Rasmusson reached on an error and then stole second and third. With two outs, James made it 1-0 with an RBI single. James was 2-for-2 with a run and an RBI on the day.

CMB battled back to tie it in the fourth and then grabbed a 2-1 lead in the top of the fifth.

In the fourth, freshman Avery Hlavacek put two runners in scoring position with a one-out double. Then with two outs, eighth-grader Hannah Caple came through with a pinch-hit RBI single that plated pinch runner Jordynn Wesselink.

In the fifth, senior MacKenzie Schmitz led off the frame with a double, moved to third on Megan Ritter’s sacrifice bunt and then scored on Kahler’s RBI groundout to second.

That would be all the Raiders offense would muster though. The only other hit in the game came from Veronica Condon.

Kahler took the loss in the circle. She surrendered seven hits but only three runs were earned.

Lynnville-Sully trailed Des Moines Christian 3-1 after two innings but scored four in the third, five in the fourth and five more in the fifth.

Lanser was 3-for-3 with two runs, a home run and six RBIs, while Kasiah Ehresman had two hits, two walks and four runs scored. Madison Rasmusson had two hits and three RBIs at the plate and earned the win in the circle after allowing eight hits and two earned runs and striking out five.

Riley Rockwell also had two hits, two runs and two RBIs at the plate for the Hawks.

CMB came into the tournament winners of five of its last six games but have now lost three straight and fell to 6-7 on the year.

Against Des Moines Christian, the Raiders scored three in the first and one in the second, but trailed after two innings because the Lions plated two in the first and four in the second. Neither team scored after the third inning.

Ritter went 3-of-4 with a run scored, an RBI and a stolen base to lead CMB’s offense. MacKenzie Schmitz and Anna Peters had the other two hits. They both scored a run and Schmitz stole two bases and walked once.

Eighth-grader Sydney Schmidt allowed 12 hits in the circle but only four of the seven runs were earned because the Raiders made several miscues in the field.