PHS Softball
Pierce Softball Sliding into the Boone Central Tourney
By Naomi Sullivan
Facing new opponents over the weekend, the Pierce High Softball team took on the Boone Central tournament, going 1-2, but managing to score 15 runs throughout the day.
The first team the Bluejays took off against were the Polk County Slammers.
“I thought our at-bats were good, you know, especially against Polk County, that first game, we scored a bunch of runs to help us get started right away in that game to win that one,” assistant coach Ryan Ohnoutka said.
Ohnoutka mentioned that he saw the team come together in the last game of the day against Centura.
“We did a good job of pitching and playing defense to keep us in that game. Kaelyn, with her pitching and how she competed, really impressed me for the tournament,” he said.
Leading the game in runs were Evelyn Skrdla and Savannah Beutler, both with three runs. Jessa Kraft hit a double, and Skrdla hit a triple.
Pitching for this game was Kaelyn Halsey. Halsey had five strikeouts over the course of four innings with only walking three.
Coming out on top against the Slammers, the Bluejays had an ending score of 11-4, sending the Slammers back to their cell.
The Bluejays got swiped from the win against the Boone Central Cardinals, losing 10-2.
Kraft led the Bluejays with two runs against the Cardinals. Kraft and Skrdla also led the team in stolen bases with Kraft stealing two and Skrdla with one.
New pitcher for this game was senior Kylie Dvorak, who had three strikeouts against the Cardinals.
The Bluejays came to their final game of the day, where they played the Centura Diamonds.
After battling back and for the first four innings and being tied at three apiece at the bottom of the fourth inning, but Pierce gave up six runs at the top of the fifth.
In hits for this game, Dvorak had one double, and Athena Bretchneider had one home run.
Stealing bases again were Skrdla and Beutler.
Pierce switched back to Halsey for the pitcher for this game, and Halsey ended the game with five total strikeouts.
“A highlight for me personally would be that I had pretty good offense for each of the games.
I think this tournament was a good outlook for the rest of the season, because we had some pretty good competition, and a lot of the teams, or most of the teams, there will be teams that we'll see for the rest of the season,” senior second baseman Peyton Brunckhorst said. “So I feel like we got closer with those games because we knew that, or we know that in the future, we'll be playing them a lot more perfectly. Just knowing that we can keep up with the majority of those teams, but we just have to keep up the energy and play to the best of our ability to beat the teams that were there. But it excites me because we hung with them pretty well for the majority of the games. I feel like the toughest part of the tournament was being able to keep up all the focus for each of the games, instead of just for a while, because we had three games that were all back to back. So keeping focus for each one of the games was pretty hard. I think Kaelyn Halsey stepped up pretty big this weekend. She pitched two of the games and did very well, so I feel like she was really good with that, even though she's a young player.”
Pierce Sweeps the Competition at Triangular
By Lauren Delka
Two strong wins came out of the triangular hosted by the Pierce High softball team against Ord and O’Neill Thursday, September 4.
The Bluejays may not have scored the first point, but that did not stop them from giving it their all.
In the bottom of the third inning against Ord, Jessa Kraft, a junior, hit a home run into center field—bringing herself and Athena Bretschneider home.
The Bluejays beat Ord 12-4.
“I'm very happy with how we played today and came back, as well as how many runs we scored, and our bats are really good,” junior shortstop Evelyn Skrdla said after the win.
Although the Jays felt satisfied with their previous win, the girls had a tense battle with O’Neill in the second game. They had a hard time scoring, but did a great job keeping O’Neill’s score at zero.
At the top of the fifth inning, O’Neill managed to score the first point of the game; Bretschneider made an unbelievable catch for O'Neill's last out of the inning. Pierce went into the dugout ready for a comeback.
Ready to score, Pierce had two outs in the bottom of the fifth. Kinley Hilkeman and Skrdla were on base, and Kraft was up to bat. Kraft had two strikes and two balls. She hit a double and batted both runners home, allowing Pierce to take the lead.
Sophomore first baseman Maelee Hamilton finished the game with the last point at the bottom of the sixth inning. Pierce won, and the final score was 3-1 against O’Nei’l.
“We were just tense, like the riot before, the crazy. We knew something was gonna happen, but we just didn’t know what,” Kraft said after the triangular. “I'm just glad we came together as a team and won both. O’Neill is a hard team to beat, so I'm glad we came through in the end.”
Pierce Softball Beats Highway 91
By Brody Knox
The Pierce Bluejays softball team battled against Highway 91 on August 26, leaving the field with a winning score of 11-5.
In the first inning, Pierce led with two runs, while in the second, no team was able to score. Battle for the win, Highway 91 was able to tie for a few plays, bringing the score to 2-2; however, Pierce was able to take back the lead with adding two more runs, ending the inning third with a score of 4-2. During the fourth, once again, Highway 91 was able to make two runs, bringing the score back to a tie of 4-4. With an outstanding performance, Pierce kicked it into gear and brought seven runs to the home base, finishing the inning with a score of 11-4. Still putting up a fight, Highway 91 was able to sneak one run initially, ending the game with a score of 11-5.
“I knew, the whole team knew, that Highway 91 was a good team. We just wanted to come to the game with a positive, uplifting mood, because we knew it was going to be a tough game. We really persevered through it and got the win,” senior Savannah Beutler states. “Leaving the game, I knew that we had just worked really well together, we beat them by a good amount, and so it was just nice to feel that.”
With all innings combined, Pierce was able to make 14 hits, while Highway 91 was able to make eight. Jessa Kraft was able to lead the team with three hits, followed by Evelyn Skrdla, Athena Bretschneider, Kaelyn Halsey, Kinley Hilkemann, and Joslynn Kraft with two hits each, and finally, Kylie Dvorak followed with one hit.
Skrdla hit a triple and a double, while Je. Kraft added two doubles and Hilkemann had one double.
“We could fix the little errors, but overall, we did good,” Dvorak, a senior, said.
