Adamson’s four home runs highlight sweep

Under Monday night’s full moon, freshman Ava Adamson added her fourth and final home run in the doubleheader against Kuemper Catholic.

Adamson went 4-for-5 in game one with a double, a triple and two home runs. In game two, Adamson went 2-for-4 with two home runs.

“I really didn’t expect anything like this,” Adamson said. “I didn’t think I warmed up very good. When I came out here, I guess I had a good mindset and had good teammates behind me, I hit really well I guess.”

Adamson has a lot of celebrations in her repertoire, including rowing a boat.

“By the end of it, I didn’t know what was happening so I threw my hands up and shrugged,” Adamson said. “I kind of liked that one.”

The Panthers opened the doubleheader with a 15-14 comeback win in 10 innings that lasted two hours and 45 minutes.

Coming into the series, both Creston and Kuemper Catholic had one loss in Hawkeye 10 play.

“First game, in all my time, I don’t know if we’ve had a game like that,” coach Mike McCabe said. “Give the kids credit, they battled and hung and found a way to get it done.”

Kuemper earned the first run of the game and added three more in the top of the second for an early 4-0 lead.

Keely Coen drove in Jacy Kralik and Adamson for the first Panther two runs of the game. Gracie Hagle drove in Mila Kuhns which brought Creston within one after two innings of play.

The Knights were held scoreless in the top of the third inning.

Nevaeh Randall tied the game at 4 in the bottom of the third inning with a solo shot home run.

Adamson gave Creston a 6-4 lead after her home run brought Morgan Driskell home.

The Knights regained the lead with four runs in the fourth and five runs in the fifth.

Creston got one back in the bottom of the fifth and added five in the bottom of the sixth.

Kuemper added one more in the top of the seventh which gave the Knights a 14-12 lead.

Anna Mikkelsen had an RBI double which tied the game at 14.

“A situation where I had already ran for Halle and just was one of those nights at the plate,” McCabe said. “Call it a hunch or whatever, but a great at bat. She battled and found away to get that thing through and tie it up. Couldn’t have been more happy for her.”

“I was just thinking bat to the ball,” Mikkelsen added.

The top of the eighth inning saw sophomore Sophie Hagle be a key part in the three outs. Hagle caught a pop fly, threw to Evans at first and caught another ball which retired the Knight side.

Knight Jordan Schwabe singled, and was eventually out at third.

In the bottom of the ninth, Randall flied out to left field, Driskell also flew out, Mikkelsen singled and Adamson flew out.

Kuemper Catholic’s Kaylie Diercksen singled, but she was the only Knight to do anything in the top of the 10th.

In Creston’s half of the 10th, Taryn Fredrickson took first base after ball four was called.

Sophie Hagle’s sacrifice bunt advanced Fredrickson to second.

Gracie Hagle’s RBI single brought Fredrickson all the way home for the victory.

After the first game, the Panthers were able to catch their breath.

“It felt like we dodged a bullet,” McCabe said. “We had a sigh of relief. Just went and got something to drink and ate a little bit.”

Creston won the second game 9-1.

“Two good wins for us,” McCabe said. “I thought defensively we played pretty good.”

Fredrickson, who just had the game one winning run, spent all seven innings in the circle and pitched 83 balls, allowed six hits and struck out four.

“Second ball game was pretty workmanlike,” McCabe said. “I thought Taryn was really good. Almost as if she got that adrenaline out of her and threw a little bit better as she relaxed.”

Evans was the first to score in game one when Sophie drove her home. Jersey Foote added a run in the bottom of the third.

Kuemper’s Kenzie Schon had a home run of her own to get Kuemper on the board.

Mikkelsen and Sophie Hagle scored in the bottom of the fourth inning and in the bottom of the fifth, Adamson got her third home run which brought her and Morgan Driskell home.

Randall drove in Foote in the bottom of the sixth.

Adamson was a carbon copy of herself in the fifth inning with another two run shot.

“Ava had a big night holy cow, we’re going to have to borrow balls from her we’re running low,” McCabe said.

Pictures from the game can be found at https://cnanews-photos.smugmug.com/Creston-softball-v-Kuemper-Catholic/.

Creston plays Glenwood tonight at 5 p.m., earlier this season Creston won 9-4.

The Rams had a doubleheader against the Harlan Cyclones Monday night. The Rams won game one 5-0 but fell 9-8 in game two.

“They’re playing really good too,” McCabe said. “It’d be a good road win if we could get it.”