Creston offense, pitching hold off Glenwood

GLENWOOD – Creston and Glenwood softball took part in a shootout Tuesday night with the Panthers edging the Rams 13-9.

Both sides got to it on offense in the first inning as Creston opened scoring on a two-RBI single from Gracie Hagle.

The Panthers weren’t done as Hagle and Emma Hanson came around to score off an error to put Creston up 4-0 right away in the first.

Glenwood responded in kind as it posted two runs of its own with a two-RBI knock from Sydney Bermann. The two-run deficit was the closest Glenwood got to evening it up for the remainder of the game.

Another four-run inning for Creston put it out ahead comfortably in the top of the third as Neveah Randall, Heylee Shields, Hanson and Morgan Driskell came in to score off of errors by Rams defenders.

Driskell added to her line with a two-run double in the following inning, bringing in Saige Rice and Randall.

Driskell had a 1-for-4 day at the plate with two RBIs. She was one of three Panthers who had two RBIs, the others being Hagle and Hanson.

Hagle finished her day 1-4 at the plate and Hanson went an impressive 4-5.

A three-run fifth and a run in the sixth put Glenwood knocking on the door for a lead exchange, but it wasn’t enough for the Rams to pull out a win over Creston and its young pitcher Haylee Gillam.

Gillam’s day in the circle consisted of three strikeouts and one walk over seven innings of work. She allowed five earned runs.

“We had a good performance out of Haylee Gillam,” said head coach Mike McCabe. “She struck out three and walked one. That was probably the key, just wasn’t behind a lot and was able to get out ahead. Kept the ball in play and did a nice job for us.”

An explosive day at the plate has not been rare for the Panthers this season, with Tuesday’s game being the fifth time this season Creston has scored more than 10 runs. It’s also the sixth time the Panthers have had 10 hits or more. When Creston has done both in the same game, it’s 5-0.

However, the success at the plate and scoring runs are not always correlated as the Rams made six errors that contributed to nine unearned runs toward Glenwood pitching.

“They helped us out with some errors ... It’s a combination of those things and some hits, but we had 11 hits in the game and tonight we kind of had those timely hits that we couldn’t get last night,” said McCabe. “Tonight we were able to get those hits and drive those runs. That’s kind of the way the game goes sometimes.”

McCabe said the game plan entering Tuesday was to avoid two or three ball counts, to prevent themselves from falling behind in the circle and on defense against a Glenwood team that was winners of four of its last six games.

“We didn’t walk people. We didn’t have people on base and we’d get that first out of the inning and made it tough for Glenwood to get any kind of big inning going. I thought those were some key things,” said McCabe.

UP NEXT – Creston (8-7, 3-4 in Hawkeye 10) will play a doubleheader against Denison-Schleswig Thursday in Creston. First pitch of game one will come at 5:30 p.m.

Creston 13, Glenwood 9

R  H  E

Crest  404  300  2  —  13  11  7

Glen  201  031  2  —  9  12  6

Creston: Haylee Gillam 3K 1BB and Peyton Rice. Glenwood: Sydney Bermann 4K 2BB, Brianna Gerhardt (4) 4K 2BB and Kelly Embray. W — Gillam (4-2). L - Bermann (1-1). HR — none. 3B — none. 2B — Crest: Sara Keeler, Saige Rice, Morgan Driskell. Glen: Brooklyn Taylor, Taryn Bertini, Coryl Matheny, Brianna Gerhardt. RBI — Crest: Gracie Hagle (2), Emma Hanson(2), Driskell (2). Glen: Sydney Bermann (3), Taylor (2), Brianna Gerhardt.