Newton High’s Cardinal softball rallied for single runs in the fifth and sixth innings to claim a 3-2 win over visiting Pella in the first game of Monday’s Little Hawkeye Conference doubleheader.
The Lady Dutch nailed down their first LHC victory by taking the second game, 5-3.
With the split of the LHC twin bill, Newton is 2-5 in conference play. The Cardinals are 6-7 overall.
Next up for the Cardinals will be a LHC contest on Wednesday at Class 4A No. 14 Norwalk. The junior varsity game is at 5:30 p.m. followed by varsity at 7 p.m.
Pella (5-6, 1-4) jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning. The Lady Dutch got a one-out single by Courtney Thompson then Madison Parks connected for a double. Ally Almond followed with a two-run base hit.
Newton responded with a run in the bottom half of the first. Mac Brown reached on an error, ending up at third base. Lakin Jenkins’ groundout allowed Brown to score.
It stayed 2-1 Pella until the bottom of the fifth inning.
Brown doubled to center field and then stole third base. Jenkins drew a walk and advanced to second, which allowed Brown to score the tying run. Parks, who was Pella’s pitcher, and the Lady Dutch retired the next three batters.
Newton pitcher Peyton Maher and the Cardinal defense had a 1-2-3 top of the sixth. Chassidy Henwood opened the bottom of the sixth with a single for Newton and moved up to second on a passed ball.
A groundout by Malarie Zach pushed Henwood to third base. With two gone, Henwood came home with the go-ahead run on an error by the Pella catcher.
Once again, Maher and the Cardinals worked a 1-2-3 inning with bookend strikeouts for Maher in the seventh.
Maher got the win as she struck out seven and allowed six hits. Parks limited the Cardinals to three hits but issued six walks and struck out four.
Brown had a double. Maher and Henwood each had a single.
In the second game, Pella hung three runs on the scoreboard in the first inning. Almond pitched for the Lady Dutch and held Newton hitless until the seventh inning. Almond hit two batters and walked five while the Pella defense had four errors.
One of those errors opened the door for the Cardinals’ first run in the fourth inning. Kameron Johnston led off and was safe on a Pella miscue but was out on a fielder’s choice hit by Henwood. Henwood moved to second on a fielder’s choice play and then scored on another Pella error.
Newton pitcher Kallie VanKley allowed seven hits, walked six and hit a batter in the loss. The Lady Dutch took advantage of two walks, a double and an error to score two runs in the fifth. VanKley struck out five Pella batters in her complete game effort.
With one gone in the bottom of the seventh, Brown doubled and Jenkins was hit by a pitch. Brown scored on a wild pitch and Jenkins ended up at third. Maher singled to drive in a run.
Maher and Thayer, who walked, were on base with one out. Parks came on in relief and coaxed a fielder’s choice and a fly ball to retire the Cardinals and end the game.
Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
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or jsheets@newtondailynews.com