March 29, 2024

Panthers handily defeated in home opener

Rams finish strong

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Creston softball coach Mike McCabe doesn’t want his team to let Tuesday’s game determine the direction this season goes.

Glenwood picked up some small measure of a revenge for Creston’s Substate home victory last summer that kept the Rams from the state softball tournament. Tuesday, the Rams knocked off the Panthers 19-1. Glenwood scored 11 runs in the seventh inning to put an emphatic exclamation mark on a game that was close in the early going.

The Rams’ Sara Ingoldsby, with a triple, three doubles, a single and four RBIs, led the way at the dish for Glenwood.

“Sara is kind of our leader and then our other seniors following behind her,” Glenwood coach Kylee Stanton said. “But I’ll say there’s not one person on the field that doesn’t lead the team.”

Those words rang true on a night when most of the lineup recorded a multi-hit game and pitcher Sydney Biermann was on top of her game with 11 strikeouts in the circle in a complete game victory.

The long seventh inning took its toll on the Panthers’ psyche.

“You never want that to happen but it does happen. You can’t get a dang out, you can’t get somebody to hit a ball at anybody, you can’t make a play when you need to,” McCabe said. “You get what you deserve and up to that point. I just think there was lot of things that I thought we were sloppy, very careless on, not executing some things. It was kind of a weird deal.”

Creston fell behind in the first two innings as Glenwood posted a run in each of the first two frames.

The Panthers got a run back when Kylee LaMasters, starting in place of Cammy Rutherford, who will be out several weeks with an injured knee, blasted a double to the fence in dead center to score Brielle Baker all the way from first base. That represented Creston’s only score on the evening.

McCabe was happy with the defensive effort of Cayla Maitlen who handled third base duties on Tuesday. Maitlen recorded five assists on groundball outs and also picked up a single at the plate.

Cali Foglesong pitched into the seventh inning with two outs, before being pulled during the Glenwood rally. LaMasters allowed a handful more runs before retiring the side in the 11-run inning.

“We’ll learn a lot about themselves after tonight. There’s no doubt about that,” McCabe said. “Your season isn’t determined by your first two games, your first week of games, but your identity can be. There were some things that I saw that aren’t going to be our identity, so we’ll have to get that straightened away tomorrow.”

UP NEXT — Creston (1-1, 0-1) will travel to Glenwood Thursday for a doubleheader starting at 5:30 p.m.

Glenwood 110 402 11 — 19 25 0

Creston 010 000 0 — 1 5 4

Visitor pitchers Sydney Biermann 11K 3BB and Sara Ingoldsby. Home pitcher Cali Foglesong 6K 3BB, 7. Kylee LaMasters and Chloe Hagle. W — Biermann. L— Foglesong. HR — None. 3B — G: Sara Ingoldsby 1. 2B — G: Ingoldsby 3, Erin Stanley 1, Sydney Biermann 1, Maddie Liddell 1, Brielle Smith 1. C: Kylee LaMasters. RBI — G: Biermann 5, Ingoldsby 4, Bailey Rumery 3, Stanley 3, Liddell 2, Brielle Smith 2, Cameron Rounds 1, C: LaMasters 1. Multiple hitters — G: Ingoldsby 6, Biermann 3, Brooklyn Taylor 3, Smith 3, Rounds 2, Rumery 2, Stanley 2, Haley Palmer 2,

JV starts season with consecutive wins

CORNING — Kylee LaMasters allowed just one hit and four Panthers registered multi-hit games at the Creston junior varsity team started off its season hot with a 13-2 win over Southwest Valley Monday.

LaMasters struck out seven and walked two in picking up the win. She also bashed two hits at the plate.

A seven-run third inning was the highlight of the game, as Creston also scored two in the first inning, three in the second and one in the fourth.

Samantha Dunphy, Braelyn Baker and Peyton Rice each had two hits for the Panthers.

Southwest Valley scored both of its runs in the first.

Kayley Myers struck out four and walked seven in the loss for the Timberwolves.

Panthers walk it off vs. Rams

Creston and Glenwood’s junior varsity teams jostled for five innings before the Panthers came through with a 12-11 victory Tuesday.

After Glenwood scored a run in the top half of the fifth to put the Rams up one, Creston tied the game on a Peyton Rice single that scored Rachel Boyer.

With Braelyn Baker on third base, a wild pitch allowed Baker to score the game-winning run.

“We got the runs we needed to when we needed to,” Creston coach Teri Keeler said. “It was ugly, but it was a win.”

Kylee LaMasters was the winning pitcher. She struck out five and did not issue a walk.

Sara Keeler recorded three hits and Peyton Rice had two.

LaMasters contributed three RBIs, MaKenna Hudson had two, while Peyton Rice and Samantha Dunphy both added one.

Both teams had 10 hits, while Creston had a few issues in the field with four errors.

“We’ve got to learn from our mistakes,” Keeler said.

Creston is now 2-0.