Wolves season ended on road by Cougars
In the bottom of the third inning in a scoreless game of the Class 1A – Region 3 First Round Tournament Game, IKM-Manning Wolves Sophomore Karlee Arp made a running, diving catch in center field for the first out.
However, following Arp’s catch, the CAM Cougars offense got going with an RBI double from Senior Emma Follmann, followed by an RBI single from Sophomore Kaitlyn Platt to bring home Follmann, then later a 2-run double from Sophomore Krista James to drop a 4-spot on the Wolves defense, winning the game over the Wolves 7-3 eliminating them from Regional play.
“First thing I did was I thanked Ella [Richards],” said Wolves Head Coach Cory McCarville. “Five years, and it’s always hard when the seniors are done, so I thanked Ella for her efforts. She was a great teammate for those girls for five years and she’s going to be missed.”
The first two innings went quiet on offense as nobody could score. That changed when the Cougars scored four runs on Richards who started the night in the circle.
The top of the fourth looked promising for the Wolves when Arp started the inning getting hit by a pitch, followed by a walk to Kamryn Ketcham, but the Wolves couldn’t cash in on the opportunity to score still trailing 4-0 heading into the bottom of the fourth.
When Richards returned to the circle, she was chased from the game right away when Cougar eighth-grader Keeley Kinney connected at the plate for an RBI double making it 5-0. McCarville then removed Richards for Arp. Arp was able to get the Wolves back into the dugout, but still trailed 6-0.
“Ella did a lot of great things for us,” McCarville said. “She got the ball up a little bit at times, ended up giving up some base hits. It was just a matter of trying to mix it up and keep it close and give us a chance. But, I thought Ella did a great job. She didn’t walk anybody, she threw strikes, and that’s all we can ask for.”
In the top of the fifth, one of the Wolves hottest hitters in Junior Alikxa McGinn hammered a 2-run double into the right center field gap to cut the Cougar lead to 6-2.
“It was nice to see some quality at bats later on, but we can’t strikeout 12 times,” McCarville added. “We’ve got to do a better job of having quality at bats. That was one of our goals for today, and 12 strikeouts is not getting that.”
In the bottom of the sixth, Follmann continued to have a great night adding another hit, this time a 2-out RBI double expanding the Cougars lead to 7-2. When the Wolves returned to the plate in the top of the seventh, they were able to muster up one more run when Sophomore Anna Stangl scored after McGinn reached safely on a 2-out infield hit, but following McGinn’s at bat, the Wolves made their final out, ending their season.
They finished their 2024 campaign with a 2-26 record with their two wins coming against Boyer Valley and Essex. Offensively, they were led by McGinn with 30 hits and a .361 batting average. Eighth grader Keagan Eischeid had 12 runs batted in. In pitching, Eischeid had one win, while Richards led the team in strikeouts with 53 in 113 innings pitched.
Richards will not return due to graduating, but despite losing her, McCarville is optimistic about the future of Wolves softball.
“There are some fundamental things we have to continue to get better at,” he said. “We’ll address those things in the offseason. We’re going to have to find some pitchers, but I think Karlee and Keagan are very capable. They’ll continue to grow in the circle and in softball the name of the game is pitching.”