Newton softball hammers Des Moines East to end skid

DES MOINES — The Cardinals scored first, but it took the Newton softball team a few innings to put away Des Moines East on Friday night.

The Cardinals snapped an 8-game losing streak though as three homers powered the visitors to a 12-4 win in five innings.

“We played better tonight,” Newton head softball coach Kory Leiker said. “It’s nice to be back in the win column. We need to keep the ball rolling from here on out and take things one game at a time.”

Newton and East were tied at 2-all after three, but the Cardinals plated six in the fourth and four in the fifth to end the non-conference game early.

The two teams are 2-2 against each other since 2007, but Newton (7-17) has won two straight in the series.

Mack Sims led the Cardinals with four hits, Makenzly Brant totaled four RBIs and Chloe Swank, Ava Williams and Leileigh Hammons all homered.

Sims laced two doubles, scored three runs and stole one base. She leads Newton with 27 runs, five doubles, 52 total bases and 12 steals.

Brant’s four RBIs came on two hits. Swank also had two hits, one homer, two runs and three RBIs. Swank leads the Cardinals with 21 RBIs and her second home run of the season was a two-run shot in the fifth.

Williams clubbed a two-run dinger in the fourth and Hammons had two hits and her team-best fifth homer was a solo shot in the fifth.

Sloan Brodersen doubled and scored one run, Paige Benson had one hit and two runs and Viana Vasseau collected the other hit. Emerson Ray walked once and Myla Sanders and Ashlyn Wallace each scored one run.

Hammons (7-10) also got the win in the circle. She went the distance and gave up three earned runs on seven hits and four walks and struck out six in five innings.

Des Moines East (5-16) scored two runs in the fourth to close the gap to 8-4 couldn’t avoid the eight-run mercy rule.