PCM softball scores season sweeps over rivals West Marshall, Saydel

MONROE — Pitching and defense have been the foundation of the PCM softball team under head coach Shaun Hudnut the past several seasons.

West Marshall found that out the hard way on Wednesday as a strong defensive outing and a bit of clutch pitching helped the Mustangs post their eighth shutout of the season.

Rylee Parsons recorded her 300th career strikeout, three Mustangs had two hits at the plate and PCM downed the rival Trojans, 6-0, during Heart of Iowa Athletic Conference play.

“Our defense is so fun to watch. Our fielding percentage is .980 right now,” Hudnut said. “We have six errors total and maybe one legit error that ate us up.”

The Mustangs scored a season sweep of West Marshall and are on a six-game win streak overall after going 5-0 last week.

The Trojans began the season ranked in Class 3A, but a loss the night before to Grand View Christian gives West Marshall three conference losses on the season.

Class 3A No. 4 PCM is 10-0 in HOIAC, while every other team in the league has at least two losses in league. Grand View Christian is currently second at 7-2.

“We had to think shutout after how they lost the night before,” junior Tori Lindsay said. “(West Marshall) can’t run with us anymore. It was a big one because it knocks another team down in the standings.”

Lindsay was one of the three players who finished with two hits on Wednesday. Her first one was a hard ground ball that knocked the Trojan shortstop off her feet for an RBI infield single.

She clubbed a lead-off solo home run in the fifth to make it 3-0. It was her second bomb of the season at the time and she now leads PCM with three homers and 17 runs and is batting .441.

The two hits came after Lindsay struck out on a rise ball in the first inning.

“I haven’t seen many rise balls yet this year and she threw two in the first at-bat,” Lindsay said. “I had to be mentally tough and adjust in the box. The second one was where I wanted it, I just swung a little late. The homer was inside, and I was able to get a good swing on it.”

The homer was enough run support for both Parsons and Camden Webb, who teamed up to shut down the Trojans’ bats.

Parsons got the start and improved to 8-0 after allowing two hits, one walk and one hit batter in four innings. She fanned four.

The first two strikeouts came with runners on second and third in the top of the first. The back-to-back strikeouts gave her 300 for her career and she fanned one more in the second and another in the fourth.

Parsons had 1-2-3 innings in the second and third but pitched around another jam in the fourth. Lily Fischer led off that frame with a double and Lily Zahnd was hit by a pitch, but Parsons struck out West Marshall pitcher Aubree Greenwood to end the inning.

“It’s great to get 300. We do a good job of celebrating all of our individual accomplishments here,” Parsons said. “We have a great defense behind us, so I just made sure to throw strikes and let them work.”

The Mustangs used the two-pitcher approach against West Marshall (8-5, 6-3 in the conference) for the second time this season.

Webb came into the game in the fifth and went the rest of the way for her third save of the season. She allowed one hit and struck out one.

Webb also had two hits. She singled on the first pitch she saw in the second and then scored on a two-out, RBI single by Holly Wood.

Addi Hudnut walked with two outs before Wood’s run-scoring hit and scored on Lindsay’s infield single.

Wood batted in the No. 9 spot. She collected her second hit of the night in the sixth, stole second and then scored on Addison Steenhoek’s RBI double. It was Steenhoek’s team-leading sixth double of the season.

Wood also made several strong defensive plays at second base. She was part of five outs, including a diving catch to lead off West Marshall’s at-bat in the sixth.

“I was just trying to get the ball in play,” Wood said about her two-out RBI single in the second. “It was a fast ball, and we needed to score some runs.

“Our defense did great. I had a couple lucky catches. We wanted to take the first punch, and we succeeded in doing that.”

The Mustangs (12-1, 10-0) scored two runs in the second and added three in the fifth and one in the sixth.

After Lindsay’s homer in the fifth, Libby Winters singled with one out and stole second. Lillian Humpal reached on an infield single and then stole second to put runners on second and third with one out.

Hadley’s Millang’s RBI ground out made it 4-0 and a fifth run scored on a West Marshall error.

Lindsay finished with two hits, one homer and two RBIs and Webb totaled two hits, one run and one RBI.

“We’ve seen her before, and she was throwing a lot of meatballs that were right there so I figured I had to jump on those early,” said Webb about swinging early in counts. “You just have to have that confidence up there.”

Wood tallied two hits, one run, one RBI and one steal from the bottom of the order, and Steehoek, Humpal and Winters had the other hits.

Humpal and Winters had one run and one steal each. Peyton Lathrum also stole one base.

Winters leads PCM with 28 total bases and 13 steals and is batting a team-best .488.

PCM out-hit West Marshall 9-3 and the Trojans committed the game’s only two errors.

The Mustangs have only six errors in 13 games this summer. Parsons and Webb have a combined earned run average of 1.32, and PCM is batting .366 as a team.

Webb allowed a two-out hit to Jillian Karsjen in the fifth but delivered 1-2-3 innings in the sixth and seventh.

“Looking at all levels, facing the lineup a third time is always tough,” Coach Hudnut said about using both pitchers against the Trojans. “When someone sees you enough, the batting average, OPS and slugging go way up. The idea is to not let them see our pitchers three times.

“(Parsons) is comfortable starting and (Webb) does an excellent job of coming in as the hammer at the end. They have slightly different velocities and different movements on their pitches so it’s tough on an opposing offense. And one comes from the left side, too.”

Greenwood (7-3) took the pitching loss for West Marshall. She allowed five earned runs on nine hits with five strikeouts. Her ERA is now 1.99.

Notes: Parsons now has 307 career strikeouts. The school record is 384. “It’s really cool for her,” Coach Hudnut said about Parsons reaching 300 strikeouts. “She’s been a mainstay on our staff since her eighth grade year and helped solidify us there. The combination with her and (Webb) gives us a 1-2 punch that a lot of teams just don’t have.”

PCM 10, Saydel 0

DES MOINES — The Mustangs scored 10 runs on 10 hits and took advantage of a pair of Saydel errors during a 10-0 shutout victory over the Eagles on Friday during HOIAC play.

It was the fourth straight win over Saydel as the series is now tied at 13-all since 2013.

PCM scored five runs in the second and four in the third before ending the game early with a run in the top of the fifth.

Lindsay, Winters and Webb all had two hits. Winters tripled, walked once, stole two bases and had three RBIs, Lindsay scored one run and had two RBIs and Webb scored one run.

Steenhoek doubled and scored one run, Millang and Kyra Naeve each totaled one hit and one run and Wood chipped in one hit, two runs, two RBIs and two steals.

“Super happy for Holly. She’s been battling,” Coach Hudnut said. “We know she’s a capable hitter. She has wheels, she can bunt and she can hit line drives for us.

“She’s also phenomenal defensively. She’s our utility infielder. If we ever had to move someone around, she would play second, third or shortstop and we would adjust the infield off that.”

Humpal walked once and was hit by a pitch, Lillian Knapp totaled one RBI, Ryan DeVore drew one walk, Addi Hudnut had one walk and one run and she was hit by a pitch and Jorja Teeter scored two runs.

Parsons got the win in the circle after allowing no runs and two hits and striking out five in five innings.

Aria Snell and Savannah McClay both had one hit to lead Saydel, which dropped to 1-10 and 1-8 in the conference.

PCM 8, Saydel 0

MONROE — Webb fanned 11 batters over five innings, and the Mustangs used a four-run fourth to pull ahead for good during an 8-0 home win over Saydel on Thursday.

PCM won the HOIAC make-up game after out-hitting the Eagles 8-2. Neither team committed an error. The game was originally scheduled for June 3.

Steenhoek slugged her first homer of the season, Lindsay belted her third dinger of the summer and six different Mustangs had at least one hit in the win.

Steenhoek and Naeve both had two hits to lead the offense. Steenhoek had one RBI on her solo homer and Naeve doubled and scored two runs.

Lindsay homered, scored two runs, had three RBIs and swiped three bases. Winters posted one hit, one RBI and one steal, Addi Hudnut doubled, scored one run and had three RBIs and Webb finished with one hit and one walk.

Lathrum scored two runs and DeVore stole one base.

Webb improved to 4-1 in the circle after allowing no runs, two hits and one hit batter in five innings. She fanned 11.

Taylor Vessells and Stella White each had one hit to lead Saydel.

PCM 11, Perry 1

MONROE — Ten different Mustangs registered at least one hit and a fast start propelled PCM to an 11-1 win over Perry on Tuesday.

The Mustangs scored twice in the first, three times in the second and plated five runs in the third of the HOIAC contest. The game ended after four innings.

PCM, which scored its sixth straight win over Perry, got two hits each from Steenhoek, Winters and Addi Hudnut.

Lindsay, Webb, Naeve, Lathrum, DeVore, Wood and Knapp all had one hit.

Steenhoek doubled, scored two runs and had one RBI, Winters tripled and had one RBI and Addi Hudnut scored two runs, totaled two RBIs and stole one base.

Lindsay scored two runs, stole two bases and posted one RBI, Wood scored one run and stole one base, Naeve doubled and Webb scored one run.

Lathrum finished with one hit and two runs and she was hit by one pitch, Knapp had one hit and scored one run and DeVore tallied one hit and one RBI. It was the first career varsity hits for Lathrum, Knapp and DeVore.

Parsons earned the win in the circle. She surrendered one earned run on four hits and fanned five in four innings.

Cate Erickson led Perry (3-5, 3-5) with one hit and one run. The Bluejays had as many hits (4) as they had errors (4).

PCM 5, Pleasantville 0

PLEASANTVILLE — The Mustangs scored a single run in five of their six at-bats and eight players accounted for nine hits during a 5-0 home win over Pleasantville on June 9.

PCM out-hit the Trojans 9-4 in the non-conference game. It was the Mustangs’ third straight victory over Pleasantville.

Winters led the offense with two hits, one run, one RBI and one steal. Lindsay clubbed a solo homer, Humpal doubled and had one RBI, Steenhoek and Millang each contributed one hit and one run and Addi Hudnut tallied one hit, one run, one RBI and two steals and she was hit by one pitch.

Wood had one hit, one RBI and one steal, Webb collected one hit and DeVore stole one base.

Webb earned the pitching win after surrendering no runs, four hits and three walks. She struck out eight in seven innings.

Harper McGraw led Pleasantville (7-4) with two hits and Taylor Perkins walked twice.