SOFTBALL: NV/OM wins wild game with Cardinals

Nodaway Valley/OM softball improved to 3-0 in Pride of Iowa Conference play in the last week, remaining near the top of conference standings. The Wolverines are tied with Southeast Warren, which is also 3-0, a half-game behind conference leader Wayne.

The Wolverines last played Thursday, when they won a wild 12-11 game against Central Decatur.

The Wolverines will play both Southeast Warren and Wayne this week. They traveled to Wayne Tuesday and host SEW Friday. The Falcons are top-ranked in Class 1A and the Warhawks are fifth. Martensdale-St. Marys, ranked ninth in 1A, is in town Thursday. The Wolverines dip into non-conference action Wednesday in a trip to Earlham.

“It’s a big week. We are sitting pretty confident where we are now,” NV/OM co-head coach Ryan Zenor said. “We have the battles of the best this week with the three ranked teams in our conference and then an always good Earlham team. We’re buckling up for a heck of a week.”

In the Central Decatur game, the Cardinals sent 10 batters to the plate in the top of the first to jump out to a 6-0 lead. Nodaway Valley/OM would answer, scoring three times in the first. Mattie Thompson reached on an error and scored on an error for the first run. Later on, Addi Glade had a two-run single that scored Taylor Laughery and Emma Boswell that cut CD’s lead in half.

The Cardinals made it look as though they would mercy-rule the Wolverines as they scored three runs over the next two innings for a 9-3 lead. NV/OM then mounted a comeback of epic porportions.

Two Wolverine runs scored in the bottom of the third to cut the Cardinal lead to 9-5. In the fourth, the Wolverines sent 11 batters to the plate and scored seven runs for a 12-9 lead. All seven runs were earned as the Wolverines put constant pressure on Morgan Havlik, Central Decatur’s pitcher. Thompson singled to drive in two runs, Izzy Eisbach doubled to bring in two more, Lea Stonebraker did the same and Emma Boswell drove a run in on a single. Thompson, Laughery, Eisbach, Emma Boswell, Stonebraker and Carter Osborne all recorded hits in the frame.

The 12-9 score held until the top of the sixth when the Cardinals made things interesting, cutting the gap to 12-11, but that’s as close as they could get.

“We were sluggish for the first innings for some reason, but we turned it up and it was a good thing; we were in quite a hole,” said Zenor.

The Wolverines’ calling card early in the season has been their hitting. Going into this week’s games, Nodaway Valley has a team batting average of .321. Thompson is 10th in the POI in batting with an average of .467. Laughery, Emma Boswell and Stonebraker have batting averages over .450 and would be among the conference leaders with a few more at-bats.

The last week began with the Wolverines heading to face non-conference Griswold/CAM in Griswold. The Tigers came into the game unblemished at 5-0 with an influx of players due to a new sharing agreement with the CAM Cougars.

Griswold took control of the game in the bottom of the second inning when five runs scored. Three runs were due to errors in the inning. The Tigers then put the game away with a three-run fourth inning that set the score at 8-0, ending the game by mercy rule. Griswold has now won four straight games against the Wolverines, with wins in each of the last four seasons.

The Wolverines had two hits in the game, coming from singles from Stonebraker and Chloe Rardin. Emma Boswell was hit by a pitch to get on base. Ella Boswell took the loss after pitching four innings. Of the eight runs, only five were earned. Boswell struck out four, walked three and faced 23 batters on the night.