Gross caps family milestone trifecta with 1000th ‘K’

 AUDUBON (June 19) -- It’s been fun, but individual milestone season is officially over for the Gross family and IKM-Manning softball.
 The only business at hand now is to keep winning games.
 IKM-M senior Peyton Gross, just five days after earning career pitching win number 100, surpassed 1,000 strikeouts Tuesday night as the second-ranked (2A) Wolves beat Audubon 12-0 in five innings to cap a season sweep and improve to 16-1.
 Gross pitched a one-hitter with nine strikeouts and has now achieved two impressive milestones on the heels of her mother and head coach, Joy, notching career coaching win number 700 on June 7.
 Following three low-key family celebrations in a span of 13 days, both Joy and Peyton agreed that it’s time to look forward.
 “A thousand (strikeouts) is a lot. It’s a huge milestone, but right now we’re about done with the ‘woo-hoo’ on milestones. It’s more about the team,” Coach Gross said. “(Peyton) knew that [1,000 Ks) was going to come and go and without a blip it’s (over), but we’re certainly proud of her for getting there. Not many pitchers get to a thousand.”
 The Wolves didn’t wait long to put a couple crooked numbers on the board against Audubon pitcher Gracye Albertsen, scoring three runs in the first and four in the second. They added five more in the fifth to activate the 10-run rule.
 Payton Sporrer’s two-run single got things going in the first and Sammy Halbur roped a two-run double in the second. After a couple quiet innings, the IKM-M bats got loud again in the fifth, including two-run singles by Grace Youngren and Gaskill.