SOFTBALL: NV/OM girls end on a high note

The Nodaway Valley/OM softball squad carried a two-game win streak into their postseason matchup Monday at Kuemper Catholic.

The Wolverines came out on top of a 5-0 game at Central Decatur last Wednesday and followed it up with a 14-1 win at East Union the next night. The games snapped a long losing streak and shifted momentum going into the playoffs.

The win against Central Decatur was the first time a Nodaway Valley team captured a shutout over the Cardinals since 2009. The last shutout for the Wolverines was last year against CAM.

NV/OM scored three times in the first against the Cardinals. Mattie Thompson and Taylor Laughery led off with singles and both scored on a one-out, two-run single by Izzy Eisbach. Lea Stonebraker walked with one-out, later scoring for a 3-0 lead.

Addi Glade and Ella Boswell had back-to-back RBI hits in the seventh, which scored Laughery and Stonebraker for the other runs of the game.

NV/OM had 10 hits in all. Eisbach went 4-for-4 with a double and two RBIs. Thompson and Laughery had two hits apiece. Ella Boswell fired a complete game shutout, striking out one, walking two and scattering six hits. The Cardinal hitters reached third base just three times, but the Wolverines had an answer each time to get out of the jam.

The Wolverines reached a double-digit hit total for the fourth time this season in the win against East Union. The win gave the season series to the Wolverines, who beat East Union 18-8 in the second game of the season back in late May. The double-digit run total was the first time since they did that in three of their first four games. All four times have resulted in wins for the Wolverines. Through 17 games, Nodaway Valley/OM is averaging five runs a game, having scored 85 runs in 17 games and counting.

Nodaway Valley had 13 hits with four players with multi-hit games. Thompson was 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles, an RBI, a stolen base and three runs scored. Ella Boswell also had three hits, including a pair of triples, an RBI and a run scored. Laughery had two hits, a double, and two RBIs and Izzy Eisbach had a pair of hits and drove in a pair of runs. Lea Stonebraker had a double, a walk, two RBIs and scored once. Other hits were from Glade and Chloe Rardin. Ella Boswell was the winning pitcher after four innings of work. She struck out six, walked two and scattered two hits.

RBI hits from Laughery and Stonebraker in the top of the first gave the Wolverines a 2-0 lead. NV/OM batted around in the top of the second inning and scored five runs to extend their lead to 7-0. RBI doubles from Laughery and Stonebaker in the inning, along with a RBI single from Thompson, accounted for three of the runs.

Nodaway Valley/OM batted around again in the top of the third and in all, sent 10 batters to bat in that half inning. The Wolverines slammed the door on a comeback by the Eagles with six runs in the inning to take a 13-0 lead. A pair of two-run singles by Eisbach and Glade as well as a RBI single by Ella Boswell in the inning brought in five of the six runs. The final run came home in the top of the fourth on a passed ball to set the score at 14-0.