PCM softball dominates trio of HOIAC opponents

MONROE — It took the PCM softball team a few innings to get going against South Hamilton on Wednesday.

But once the Mustangs got locked in at the plate, they did enough in one frame to end the game after four innings during an 11-0 home win over the Hawks.

Class 3A No. 4 PCM broke open a scoreless game with an 11-run third inning. The Mustangs sent 15 batters to the plate in the frame and ended the Heart of Iowa Athletic Conference contest early.

“We haven’t been too consistent offensively yet,” PCM head softball coach Shaun Hudnut said. “The first two innings tonight, we hit the ball hard but got underneath it a little bit too much. The girls adjusted well though.”

The 11 runs were more than enough for Rylee Parsons, who tossed the first perfect game of her prep varsity career. She struck out five in four innings of work.

Parsons (5-0) is now seven strikeouts away from 300 in her career. The school record is 384.

“The energy was great,” Parsons said. “When we’re loud and the crowd in the stands is loud, it helps me in the circle to know that we have all these people supporting PCM softball.”

PCM (7-1, 6-0 in the HOIAC) is 19-8 against South Hamilton since 2009. The Mustangs have won nine straight in the series.

Tori Lindsay opened the bottom of the first with a double on the first pitch she saw. The ball hit the fence in left-center field in the air, but the Mustangs were kept off the scoreboard after back-to-back fly outs.

After going down in order in the second, PCM plated 11 runs in the third.

Kyra Naeve singled and then stole second to start the frame. Lindsay walked and Addison Steenhoek loaded the bases with a bunt single.

Libby Winters made it 2-0 with a two-run double.

PCM did most of its damage with two outs. Holly Wood and Steenhoek both produced two-run singles, South Hamilton (0-7, 0-7) committed a pair of errors and Winters and Humpal delivered RBI doubles to extend the lead to 11-0.

After lacing a double on the first pitch she saw in the first inning, Lindsay drew a walk to load the bases with two outs in the third.

“I did love to see (Lindsay) take ball four with runners on first and second with two outs,” Coach Hudnut said. “Anything we can do to move kids around the bases and play team ball will help us.

“We moved her to the lead-off role, but that doesn’t’ mean we want her to just take pitches. She saw one early in the count in the first and hit it to the fence.”

Steenhoek finished with two hits, two runs, two RBIs and one stolen base and Winters tallied two doubles, two runs and three RBIs.

Winters leads the Mustangs with 13 runs and seven stolen bases, Humpal has a team-best 13 RBIs and 19 total bases and Humpal, Steenhoek and Naeve are all batting .500.

Lindsay doubled, scored two runs, walked twice and stole one base, Wood finished with one hit, one run, two RBIs and one steal and Camden Webb posted one hit, one run and one RBI.

Naeve registered one hit, two runs and two steals, Addi Hudnut had one hit, one run and one steal and Humpal tallied one hit and one RBI.

“We feel the pressure coming into the season, but it’s an experienced group,” said Steenhoek, who is the team’s only senior. “It’s been fun so far. We have a bunch of proven girls, and it’s really about proving to the public that we belong in Fort Dodge.”

PCM out-hit the Hawks 10-0 and South Hamilton had the game’s only two errors.

The Mustangs have committed four errors in eight games this summer.

“We’re happy with our start,” Coach Hudnut said. “We knew there would be a couple tough games to begin the season. It’s not easy starting the conference season off with the team you expect to compete with for a conference title and then we played a good Pella team, too.

“We knew we had a few easier games this week, but we did what we had to do and took care of business.”

PCM 11, Roland Story 0

ROLAND — The Mustangs won a second game by an 11-0 score on Friday when they downed Roland-Story in a HOIAC contest in four innings.

This time, PCM scored in all four innings and a fast start kept the Mustangs unbeaten in conference play.

Roland-Story finished with more errors (4) than hits (3) and dropped to 2-3 in HOIAC games.

“I like that everybody is level headed,” Lindsay said. “No one thinks we’ve arrived or anything. We’re all playing as a team right now, which is real good for us.”

Lindsay, Steenhoek, Humpal, Naeve and Millang all had two hits to lead the PCM offense.

Lindsay added two runs and two steals and she was hit by a pitch, Steenhoek doubled and had one RBI, Humpal collected one run and two RBIs and Millang doubled, scored two runs and posted one RBI.

Naeve doubled, scored one run, totaled one RBI and stole one base, Winters registered one hit, one run and one steal and Webb scored one run and chipped in one RBI.

Wood walked once and scored one run and Ryan DeVore scored two runs and turned in one RBI.

Lindsay has 10 runs scored, Steenhoek is up to 14 total bases, Naeve has five steals and Winters is batting .462.

Parsons got the win in the circle after allowing no earned runs on three hits and one hit batter in four innings. She struck out two and lowered her earned run average to 2.13.

Parsons and Webb have split the team’s 46 innings evenly. Parsons is 5-0 with 20 strikeouts and Webb is 2-1 with two saves and 26 strikeouts.

“I think it gives us both opportunities to pitch and gives us the breaks we need to stay fresh, too,” Parsons said. “We were all locked in today.”

Coach Hudnut said the plan mostly is to give each pitcher a few starts a week, but they could both pitch in the same game and have similar roles as last year if the situation calls for it.

“We’re very fortunate that we can run two starters a week and get the appropriate rest,” Coach Hudnut said. “We still have the option to start one and bring the other one in later in the game. We’re experimenting more this year with giving them both starts and seeing how long they can go.

“They’ll be some games we attack it as a double team. We want to make sure we cover anything we’ll potentially run into at regionals or at state. We’re playing around and thinking ahead to what’s coming next season, too.”

Roland-Story (3-3) was led by Brooklyn Jondle, Lauren Crabb’s and Evelyn Carson, who all had one hit.

The win over the Lady Norse caps a 3-1 week and the Mustangs outscored HOIAC opponents 38-0.

PCM’s home game against Saydel scheduled for June 3 was postponed to June 12 due to inclement weather. The Mustangs also play at Saydel on June 13.

Next week’s schedule also includes home games against Pleasantville (June 9) and West Marshall (June 11), who both were preseason ranked in 2A and 3A, respectively.

“We know we’ll have opportunities with some big games,” Steenhoek said. “We don’t want to look past anyone and rankings are really just what they are until we get to the big stage. Being in the top 10 is always fun, but where we are right now doesn’t matter to me as long as we just keep doing our jobs.”

PCM 16, Nevada 0

MONROE — The Mustangs needed only six hits to score 16 runs against Nevada on Monday.

PCM led 3-0 after one inning and, ended the night early with an eight-run second and a five-run third and downed the Cubs 16-0. It was Coach Hudnut’s 200th career win.

“It takes a lot of talented players to be able to win that many games,” said Coach Hudnut, who’s collected 92 of those 202 victories on the softball diamond. “We’ve been fortunate to have a lot of good baseball and softball players here.

“It’s really neat. I’m glad we got it done so now we can focus on what we can do as a team.”

It was the Mustangs’ ninth straight win over Nevada (2-2, 0-2). They are outscoring the Cubs 65-4 in the last five meetings.

Millang led the Mustangs with two hits, one double, one run and four RBIs and Steenhoek tallied one hit, two runs and one walk and she was hit by one pitch.

Scarlett Mosher, Winters and Webb had the other hits. Mosher drove in two runs, Winters scored two runs and stole one base and Webb drove in one run.

Lindsay and Humpal each walked twice, scored two runs and had one RBI and were hit by one pitch.

Lindsay leads the Mustangs with four hit by pitches this summer. She’s moved to the lead-off spot in the lineup after spending last season in the No. 3 or No. 4 position.

“Some think the role of the lead-off person is to take a bunch of pitches,” Lindsay said. “But we’ve talked about it, and he wants me to attack pitches if they are there. I’m also trying to look for my pitch and then from there it’s not a matter of being lead off it’s a matter of where I end up in any given inning.”

Addi Hudnut finished with one walk, two runs, one RBI and three steals against Nevada, while Wood walked twice, scored two runs and stole one base. Wood leads PCM with seven walks.

Lathrum scored two runs and stole one base, Carly Wilkerson scored one run and stole one base, Naeve had one RBI and one walk and Ila Keuning walked once.

Webb earned the win in the circle. She allowed no runs, four hits and one walk and struck out eight in four innings.

Webb has 26 strikeouts in 23 innings this summer and registered the 100th strikeout of her career against the Cubs.

“I just enjoy pitching. It’s my favorite thing to do in softball,” Webb said. “The other girls help me be a better pitcher, too, with good defense and good offense even.

“It feels good and it’s been fun to get to 100 strikeouts especially with this group of girls and the bond we have with this team.”

Carlisle 7, PCM 0

CARLISLE — The 4A No. 7 Wildcats scored first and pulled away late during a 7-0 non-conference home win over PCM on Thursday.

The Mustangs were limited to three hits. Carlisle led 1-0 through four but scored twice in the fifth and four times in the sixth to pull away.

Steenhoek, Humpal and Naeve each tallied one hit. Carlisle improved to 11-0 against PCM since 2009.

Carlisle out-hit PCM 14-3, and the Wildcats had the only error in the game.

Webb (2-1) lost for the first time this season in the circle. She allowed six earned runs on 12 hits and one walk in five innings.

Parsons tossed one inning and surrendered one earned run on two hits and two strikeouts.

Logan Brown led Carlisle (8-2) with three hits and three RBIs. Ella Smith and Mallori Stutsman each had two hits, Addyson Sears scored two runs and Mallie Stoner contributed two RBIs.

“We carried a lot of positive momentum from last season into this year, and I hope that continues,” Webb said. “We’re all supporting each other no matter what the score is.”