Harlan snares split with grand slam

With one swing of the bat, Katrina Knudsen put Harlan smack in the middle of the Hawkeye 10 softball title race.

Knudsen’s grand slam home run, with two outs in the top of the sixth inning, lifted Harlan to a 5-2 victory in the nightcap of a conference doubleheader at Panther Field Thursday night.

Creston, behind the two-hit pitching of Madison Frain with 13 strikeouts, captured the opener, 2-0. In that game, Frain’s sacrifice fly scored Katlin Briley and freshman third baseman Brenna Baker sent home an insurance run with an RBI single in the fourth inning.

Early dominance

That was all Frain needed, as she mowed down the Cyclones in perfect fashion through five innings — with 12 strikeouts among the 15 outs — before Minden Brix led off the sixth with a single. Harlan managed only two baserunners for the game, as Bri Nelson had a seventh-inning single.

Brix would go on to play a key role in Harlan’s decisive rally in the second game, which was scoreless through five innings. The early stages showcased some sparkling defensive plays behind Frain, as center fielder Brianna Maitlen snared two would-be base hits on the run in the Harlan second.

Also, first baseman Haylee LaMasters ranged to the fence in foul territory to grab a popup, and two other freshmen were involved in a big play as Baker made a quick throw home to catcher Natalie Mostek to force the lead runner for the second out after Harlan had loaded the bases with three bunts.

Just when it appeared Frain was going to work out of the jam in a scoreless game, Brix poked an RBI single into right field to make it 1-0.

Big blast

Knudsen then swung on a screwball that stayed over the plate and lofted it high over the left field fence to make it 5-0.

“After Minden got that hit, I thought, at least we scored,” Knudsen said. “Now I can just relax and take a hit. You never go up there thinking you’re going to hit a home run.”

As she ran to first base, she heard first base coach Kent Klinkefus yell, “Get out of here!”

“I just thought I had hit it really high,” Knudsen said. “Then I saw coach (Toshia Kasperbauer) jumping up and down, and I was like, are you kidding me?”

Her first varsity home run, and first roundtripper of any kind since a grand slam in a freshman game, came at a good time.

“It’s nice, especially against Creston. They are our arch rivals and we haven’t beat them in like three years,” Knudsen said.

Harlan’s Taylor Schaben, meanwhile, sister of graduated pitcher Brooke Schaben, a University of South Dakota player who will be a teammate of Frain next year, succeeded her sister in sterling fashion in the nightcap.

Schaben had a no-hitter going through five innings. She finished a two-hitter with two strikeouts and one walk. Katlin Briley’s sixth-inning single and Baker’s seventh-inning single, when she scored on an error, were the only hits.

“I was just trying real hard not to give them any meatballs, and keep it on the edges, because I know they have some great hitters on that team,” Schaben said.

She said her team gradually gained confidence at the plate late in game one.

“Just seeing her more times at the plate, we had more confidence,” Schaben said. “At the end of the second game we said, OK, we’re touching the ball now. We’re going to hit her the next time.”

Creston coach Mike McCabe said a split between these two teams this year isn’t necessarily a surprise, and the Panthers were very close to getting out of the sixth-inning jam unscathed in the nightcap when it was tied 0-0.

“We were one pitch away from getting out of it with two strikes on the base hit just before the home run,” McCabe said. “We’ve had a pretty good run of conference doubleheaders. But when you have the top teams in the league, really, more often than not you see them split. That’s a pretty good team right there. They returned everybody in their lineup except Brooke Schaben.”

League race

Both teams are now 10-3 overall. Harlan is 6-1 in Hawkeye 10 play, while Creston is 4-1, leaving Glenwood as the lone unbeaten in the conference. The Rams have yet to face either Creston or Harlan in conference. (Glenwood blanked Creston, 7-0, in the Atlantic tournament when neither team pitched their aces.)

“This was big because a huge goal of ours is a conference championship,” Schaben said after the second game. We’re really going to go after it.”

One of Harlan’s defeats this season is 5-1 to Class 4A No. 7-ranked Sioux City Bishop Heelan. Creston, No. 8, takes on Heelan at 5:30 p.m. tonight in the John Stephens Classic here. Earlier today, the Panthers were scheduled to play Griswold.

As the classic continues on Saturday, Creston faces Albia at 12:50 p.m., before concluding the event against No. 2-ranked Dallas Center-Grimes at 6:20 p.m.

Playing a high-caliber team like Harlan was good preparation for the weekend, McCabe said.

“I give Taylor (Schaben) a lot of credit for how she battled us tonight,” McCabe said. “We have to learn to be a little tougher mentally, and not feel sorry for ourselves. When you’re not having a good night, you have to battle through it and get better.”

After the busy weekend, the Panthers jump right back into league play with JV-varsity games against Red Oak at home on Monday.

Creston 2, Harlan 0

R H E

Harlan 000 000 0 — 0 2 0

Creston 100 100 x — 2 4 0

H: Taylor Schaben 5K 1BB and Kelsey Croghan. Cr: Madison Frain 13K 0BB and Natalie Mostek. W — Frain. L— Schaben. RBI — Cr: Brenna Baker 1, Frain 1. Multiple hitters — none.

Harlan 5, Creston 2

R H E

Harlan 000 005 0 — 5 7 2

Creston 000 001 1 — 2 2 1

H: Taylor Schaben 2K 1BB and Kelsey Croghan. Cr: Madison Frain 6K 0BB and Natalie Mostek. W — Schaben. L— Frain. HR — H: Katrina Knudsen. 2B — H: Abby Sonderman. RBI — H: Knudsen 4, Minden Brix 1; Cr: Frain 1. Multiple hitters — H: Jenna Hoch 2.