COLLINS — Collins-Maxwell/Baxter junior Abbey Kahler tossed a one-hitter and her defense made sure the Raiders didn’t allow another North Polk comeback Monday during a 5-0 win in Heart of Iowa Conference play.
CMB had a 5-1 lead over the Comets on June 14 before allowing five unearned runs in the bottom of the seventh inning.
The Class 3A No. 12 Raiders avoided the letdown Monday, scoring their first run in the fourth on home run by senior Payge Jurgens and then put the game away with a four-run sixth inning.
In the sixth, sophomore Katie Camp hit a one-out single and then moved up a base on a single by Kahler. Junior Mikayla Eslinger made it 2-0 with an RBI single and then eighth-grader Mikayla Houge delivered a two-run triple to push the lead to 4-0.
Houge scored the team’s fifth run on an RBI single by eighth-grader Holly Jessen.
Kahler allowed one hit in the circle. She struck out four and improved to 9-2 on the season.
The homer by Jurgens was her fifth of the season. Eslinger finished with two hits and one RBI, Houge had one hit and two RBIs and junior Megan Ritter, Camp, Kahler and Jessen all had one hit. Camp, eighth-grader Abby Husak, Jurgens, Eslinger and Houge all scored a run.
The Raiders (16-6 overall, 10-2 in the HOIC) play at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Prairie City-Monroe. The loss dropped North Polk to 14-9 overall and 7-4 in the HOIC.
Saturday
Raiders finish 1-2 in Rose Festival tournament
STATE CENTER — CMB got a tough draw in the annual Rose Festival softball tournament on Saturday, and the Raiders nearly knocked off 5A No. 14 Cedar Rapids Prairie in the process.
Prairie (16-12) plated the only run of the game in the bottom of the seventh inning during a 1-0 win. CMB struggled in a 7-1 loss to Des Moines Christian before finishing seventh in the tournament with a 5-1 victory over Gladbrook-Reinbeck.
Against Prairie, Kahler struck out 11 batters and surrendered six hits. The Raiders had zero hits at the plate.
Des Moines Christian (8-10) gave Houge her worst loss of the season.
The Lions cranked out nine hits and scored seven earned runs against Houge. Houge struck out six and walked five in dropping to 7-3 on the season.
The Raiders led 1-0 after the first inning. Camp scored the team’s lone run and had one hit.
The Lions scored seven runs in the second and neither team scored again.
Jessen had two hits at the plate to lead the Raider offense. Sophomore Jordynn Wesselink had one hit and one walk.
Kahler pitched again against Gladbrook-Reinbeck and got the win, allowing one earned run on four hits. She struck out eight.
Ritter finished with three hits, three RBIs and one run at the plate, while Kahler had two hits and one RBI. Jessen scored two runs.