March 19, 2024

Four area softball athletes land on HOIC first team

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The Collins-Maxwell/Baxter softball team’s historic season helped get nearly the entire starting lineup recognition on the Heart of Iowa Conference teams.

In all, 13 area athletes earned recognition, eight of those players coming from CMB and five from Prairie City-Monroe.

CMB had three first-team selections in senior Payge Jurgens, junior Abbey Kahler and eighth-grader Mikayla Houge. PCM junior Jayci Vos also earned first-team recognition.

The Raiders had three other second-team selections — juniors Mikayla Esliger and Megan Ritter and freshman Hannah Caple. Sophomore Katie Camp and eighth-grader Holly Jessen were honorable mention choices.

PCM’s Vos was the Mustangs’ lone first-teamer, but juniors Courtney Bridges and Abby Waddell were both second-team honorees. Juniors Kayla Jennings and Jaiden Rogers each were named to the honorable mention team.

CMB won the HOIC title with a 13-2 record, recorded a school-record 27 wins and clinched a berth into its first-ever state softball tournament this past season.

The Raiders ranked in the middle of the pack in offensive batting average, but CMB had the best earned run average (1.04) and the fewest errors (22) among the nine-team league.

Jurgens was named to the HOIC first team as an infielder. The Raider first baseman batted .333, hit four home runs and had eight RBIs in conference play this season. She walked a league-high 13 times and had an on base percentage of .509.

Jurgens had only two errors and a fielding percentage of .981.

Houge was one of two first-team pitchers in the HOIC. She finished with a league record of 8-1, had an earned run average of 0.58 and struck out 58 while walking 15. She also held her opponents to a .205 batting average.

Kahler hit a team-best .426 in conference play, while blasting two homers and collecting 13 RBIs. She made the first team as a utility player because she also was 5-1 in the circle with a 1.75 earned run average. She struck out 42 batters and walked just one.

The Mustangs finished 6-8 in HOIC play this season. Defensively, they only committed 26 errors, which was four back of leader CMB.

Vos had the third-best batting average in conference play at .447. She hit three home runs and had 12 RBIs. Her on base percentage was .519 and she scored 17 runs, which ranked fourth in the conference.

A key cog to the Raider offense this season was outfielder Ritter, who hit .405, scored 10 run and stole 11 bases from her leadoff position. The 11 steals ranked second in the league.

Eslinger batted .348 with two home runs and 15 RBIs, while Caple hit .316 and had an on base percentage of .409. Caple made the second team as a catcher, while Eslinger earned the honor as an infielder.

Caple threw out two of the three runners who attempted steals against her, while Eslinger had just two errors at second base. Caple did not commit an error and Eslinger had 22 putouts.

Bridges was the other second-team catcher. She also did not commit an error while hitting .214 at the plate.

Waddell was a second-teamer as an outfielder. The center fielder batted .362 in conference play and scored 12 runs.

Jennings batted .321 and had 10 RBIs and committed only three errors for the Mustangs, while Rogers batted .317 and had two errors at second base.

Camp batted .283 for the Raiders and committed one error in left field. Jessen hit .226 and had a fielding percentage of .970.

North Polk had three first-team selections in pitcher Sophie Swygmann, infielder Rebecca Rimanthe and outfielder Audrey Ley.

The other first-team selections were South Hamilton catcher Alyssa Hegland, Saydel catcher Lindsay Bianchi and outfielder Anneliese Barton and Greene County infielder Carleigh Paup and outfielder Sydney Koch and Roland-Story utility player Hailey Louw.

Koch, Bianchi and Hegland were the only unanimous first-team selections.

Saydel finished second behind CMB with an 11-4 conference record. North Polk was third at 10-5, South Hamilton finished 10-6 and Greene County was 8-8. PCM ended up at 6-8, Roland-Story was 5-10, Gilbert finished 4-12 and Nevada was 2-14.