April 24, 2024

Raider softball scores two shutout wins in Collins Days tourney

By Troy Hyde
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Collins-Maxwell/Baxter’s Katie Camp had three hits and scored two runs in the Raiders’ 10-0 win over Colo-NESCO during the first round of the Collins Days Tournament on Saturday. Camp also had one of three Raider hits in the 3-0 win over Montezuma in the title game. (Troy Hyde)

COLLINS — The Collins-Maxwell/Baxter softball team was missing a few starters from its lineup during its annual Collins Days Tournament.

Thankfully, Abbey Kahler was still standing in the circle.

The sophomore pitcher kept Colo-NESCO and Montezuma off the scoreboard and her two shutouts gave the Raiders the tournament championship on Saturday.

Kahler allowed just three hits and struck out eight during a 10-0 win over the Royals in CMB’s opener and then shut down Montezuma, 3-0, in the finals to once again push the Raiders’ overall record to one game over .500.

“It was a good day with two shutouts and winning our home tourney,” CMB coach Troy Houge said.

In the championship game, Kahler allowed four hits and struck out six in the circle and blasted a two-run homer run at the plate in the first inning to give CMB (14-13) an early advantage.

“It was a good thing she homered because we only had three hits in the game,” Houge said.

The Raiders had no trouble with Colo-NESCO (9-14) in the opener as they pounded out 12 hits and scored at least one run in all five innings.

Katie Camp led the way with three hits and two runs, while Kahler, Payge Jurgens, MacKenzie Schmitz and Mikayla Eslinger all had a pair of hits in the win.

Schmitz and Camp led off the bottom of the first with back-to-back singles and then Kahler made it 1-0 with an RBI double. Abbey Appelgate brought in Camp two batters later with an RBI groundout.

The lead grew to 4-0 in the second inning when Harlie Durr drove in Hannah Caple with a groundout and the Schmitz collected an RBI single that scored Avery Hlavacek.

The Raiders stranded the bases loaded in the third but not before a Royal error helped CMB take a 5-0 lead. Caple forced the error by putting the ball in play and Jurgens, who walked, came around to score.

Eslinger’s second hit of the day drove in two in the fourth. The sophomore’s gapper to left-center field made it 7-0 and a third run crossed homeplate when the Royals committed another error.

Kahler’s second RBI of the game came in the fifth when she brought home Camp with a double. Kahler’s courtesy runner, Jordynn Wesselink, scored the walk-off, game-ending run when Jurgens came through with an RBI single.

The Raiders only had three hits against Montezuma (13-12). Camp and Appelgate had the other hits and Schmitz, Camp and Kahler scored the three runs. Schmitz also stole a base.

Kahler’s two wins in the circle included zero walks in 12 innings. She improved to 12-10 on the season with an earned run average of 1.75. She has 134 strikeouts and just 24 walks in her 22 starts.

Montezuma beat CAL, 12-0, to reach the championship game. Colo-NESCO ousted CAL, 11-1, in the third-place game.

The Raiders host Colfax-Mingo at 7:30 p.m. Monday in Collins and travel to Roland-Story at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.