Tigers rally to beat Cardinals in five innings

GRINNELL — Newton High’s Cardinals were riding a wave of momentum in their final Little Hawkeye Conference softball game on Friday night. They led 2-0 after three innings and sophomore Kallie Van Kley had control from the circle.

Van Kley and the Cardinals had retired their hosts, the Grinnell Tigers, in order through three innings. Then Kate Kriegel’s lead-off home run turned on the switch and turned the tide in the fourth inning.

The Tigers tied the game at 2-all in the bottom of the fourth. Momentum swung all the Tigers’ way as they scored 10 runs in the fifth to claim a 12-2 run-rule win in five innings.

Newton went 0-12 in LHC play in 2020. The Cardinals (0-16) have one game remaining in the regular season as they play at 6 p.m. on Monday against West Marshall at State Center.

The Cardinals scored a run in the second inning of Friday’s game. Peyton Durr, an eighth grader, was hit by a pitch and moved to third on a base hit by sophomore Taylor Lust with two gone. Durr scored on a passed ball.

In the top of the fourth, eighth-grader Kadence Ahn single and went to second on a groundout. Van Kley drove in Ahn on a single to right field.

With it tied up, the Tigers used four singles and six walks to score 10 runs in the fifth for the win.

Van Kley did not give up a hit until Kriegel’s home run in the fourth and hadn’t allowed a base runner through the first three innings. She pitched 4 1/3 innings, allowing eight runs on seven hits and three walks. She struck out five.

Sophomore Jazzlyn Cooper came on in relief and got one out. Cooper gave up four runs on one it and three walks.

Ahn, Lust and Van Kley had a single apiece for the Cardinals.

Newton begins Class 4A Region 3 action at 7 p.m. on Thursday at Bondurant-Farrar.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at

641-792-3121 ext. 6535

or jsheets@newtondailynews.com