Lady Jays Softball
Lady Jays Finish 4th
By Shayna Hawkinson
The Lady Jays softball team competed in the Mid-State conference tournament held at O’Neill on Saturday, October 1, and Pierce finished 4th overall.
In the opening game of the day, the Lady Jays faced Boone Central/Newman Grove and lost 10-7.
In the first inning Pierce led 6-4; however, going into the second inning Pierce only scored one run but gave up six, leaving the score at the end of the second 10-7 in favor of the Cardinals. Neither of the teams scored in the third and fourth innings. Hayle DeBoer, Peyton Brunckhorst, and Brooke Reddest each had a hit. Madelyn Hanson had two hits, one of which was a double. Also adding two hits was Lauren Darnall.
For the second game of the tournament, the Lady Jays pulled themselves out of the losers bracket by defeating O’Neill 4-3.
In the first inning Pierce jumped out to an early 2-1 lead. While neither team scored in the second, the Lady Jays added another two runs in the third, again holding O’Neill scoreless. Again neither team scored in the fourth or fifth innings. In the sixth and last inning, Pierce allowed two runs, but still held on to the 4-3 lead.
Leading the way for the Lady Jays were DeBoer and A. Hanson with two hits each. Alexis Sporleder had one hit, which was a triple. Also adding hits for the Lady Jays were Isabelle Skrdla and Darnall.
In the second game that Pierce played against Boone Central/Newman Grove for third place honors, the Lady Jays suffered another loss, this time 7-6.
In the first inning, both teams were tied at 2. Into the second inning Pierce gave up two additional runs but only added one to the scoreboard, pushing the score to 4-3 in favor of BC/NG. Again in the third inning, the Lady Jays were outscored 2-0. In the fourth inning both teams stayed scoreless. Finally in the fifth inning Pierce added three to the scoreboard, but gave up one additional run, making the final score 7-6 in favor of the Cardinals.
Angeline Skrdla had a hit, which was a double. M. Hanson had two hits, one of which was a double. In addition, Reddest also added two hits, and Aubrey Hanson had a hit. Finally Darnall also added a hit, which was a double.
The Lady Jays finished out their season with a 5-22 record.
Lady Jays Accept Loss to Slammers
By Addison Sporleder
The Pierce Lady Jays softball team hosted the Polk County Slammers for their last home game of the season on Thursday, September 29. The annual parents night was held before the game with the players being announced with their parents. Right after, the Lady Jays fought hard against the Slammers, but ended up losing 14-4.
Aubrey Hanson commented on the game, “I was pretty excited when I hit my home run because in the past few games I wasn't hitting as well as I wanted. I think we need to improve on communication. The team is preparing for conference by making sure that we keep the mood up at all times.”
Starting off in the first inning, Pierce was scoreless, but Polk County put up one run on the board. In the second inning, the Slammers scored two more runs, and the Lady Jays scored one. Moving to the third, Pierce held Polk County scoreless and was able to add two more runs to their score. For the fourth inning, the Lady Jays could not score any, while the Slammers scored six runs. In the fifth and final inning, Polk County put up five more runs and only let Pierce score one, ending the game at 14-4.
Pierce had a total of six hits on the night, two of which came from Lauren Darnall. Madelyn Hanson, Hayle DeBoer, and Isabelle Skrdla each contributed one hit to the game, and A. Hanson added a home run to the books. Peyton Brunckhorst, DeBoer, A. Hanson, and Darnall scored the four runs for the Lady Jays. A. Hanson led the team in RBI’s with two, followed by DeBoer and Darnall with one.
Defensively, Kylie Dvorak and Darnall did the pitching duties with one and four strikeouts from them, respectively.
Head coach Marika VonSeggern said, “Our pitchers really stepped up last night. They both were doing exactly what we asked of them. On offense, we hit well and our runners were able to move into scoring position almost every inning. Going into the postseason, we really need to step up defensively.”
The Lady Jays will take the field on Monday, October 3, for their subdistrict tournament against Centennial at Geneva.
