Wolves drop home game to Cardinals
The struggles continue for the IKM-Manning Wolves softball team, dropping their fourth consecutive game Monday night at home against the Treynor Cardinals 6-1.
For the Wolves, Junior Ella Richards pitched all seven innings, striking out nine batters.
“Ella’s been throwing strikes and she’s been pounding the zone all year long,” said Wolves Head Coach Joy Gross. “She’s done a great job of doing what she needs to do in the circle.”
The Cardinals got on the board early, scoring their first run off Richards in the top of the 1st inning. They added another run in the top of the 3rd, two more in the 4th, and one in the 5th.
The Wolves couldn’t get their bats going against Junior Cardinal Jadyn Huisman, who pitched 5 1/3 innings, striking out nine batters, and didn’t allow the first hit until the bottom of the 6th on a bunt single by Grace Carroll.
“Jadyn Huisman is a really good pitcher,” Gross said. “She’s going to throw fire. We knew she would. She’s going to be around the plate. They didn’t do anything that we didn’t expect them to do. We knew we had to put the ball in play.”
The Wolves were able to capitalize in that half inning when Anna Stangl scored on a sacrifice by Karlee Arp.
“We had a couple of really nice bunts,” Gross added. “We were able to produce a hit and a run. I thought that was something that we could build on. We ran the bases well. We stole second and we stole third and I thought that was a great sequence for us.”
The Wolves will be right back in action on the road Tuesday night against the 5-3 Audubon Wheelers, who have lost their previous two games.
The Wheelers are led by Jordan Porsch with 13 hits and Mattie Nielsen with 10 runs batted in. Alexis Obermeier has four wins with 66 strikeouts and a 1.88 earned run average.
“Having self confidence is probably the biggest thing we need to get better at,” Gross said. “You’ve got to believe in yourself and we’re working on that, too.”