Road domination

DENISON — The Panthers took care of business Monday at Denison-Schleswig in Hawkeye 10 doubleheaders, coming away with the four-game sweep.

Softball

The Panthers (11-4, 8-0) defeated the Monarchs (3-9, 0-8) 14-6 and 10-0.

Senior Taryn Fredrickson was in the circle five innings of game one and the entire second game. In the first match, she pitched seven strikeouts and allowed six runs before Kennedy Strider came in as relief.

In game two, Fredrickson pitched a no-hitter shutout.

Creston came out swinging in game one, scoring on their first three batters -— Ava Adamson, Avery Staver and Fredrickson.

Fredrickson led the offense with four runs on five at-bats and a 100% on-base percentage. She logged three RBIs, two doubles and a triple.

Staver scored three runs while Adamson and Jersey Foote each put up two.

Denison looked to get offense going in the second inning with runners making it to second and third base off two singles, but Fredrickson came back to strike out the following three batters.

Doubles in the third and fourth innings led to scores and third batter made it from second to home on a wild pitch.

In the fifth, a double with bases loaded resulted in three runs for the monarchs, but at this point, they still trailed 12-6.

Creston took the win after the sixth inning with a strikeout, a ground out and an infield fly to shut down the Monarchs in three batters.

Game two was brutal for Denison-Schleswig as they only sent 12 batters to the plate — not a single one landing on base. Mostly fly balls and strikeouts, Creston’s defense made quick work of the Monarchs.

Game two offense was led by senior Evy Marlin who posted two runs on a single and a double and batted in three runs.

Staver also scored two runs and Mila Kuhns had three RBIs on three at-bats. The 10-0 lead was enough to end the inning in the fourth with a ground out from Staver to Strider.

Fredrickson’s 11 strikeouts on the night puts her at sixth place in the state, all classes, for strikeouts with 88.

Baseball

It was more defense on the baseball field, Creston winning game one 3-2 and 4-3, raising their record to 8-7, 5-4 after a tough stretch of games saw them lose five straight.

“It’s always good to start the week off with a clean sweep,” coach Brandon Phipps said. “I thought at the plate we did a lot of nice small ball things with some timely hitting.”

Though the score was close, the Panthers had the lead all of game one, helped by two runs in the first by Tyler Riley and Tanner Ray, batted in by freshman Brady McDonald. Denison responded with one in the fifth and each scored one in the seventh to close out the game.

Riley led the offense with two runs on two at-bats. He made it on base with a walk and a hit by pitch.

Sophomore Tom Mikkelsen pitched the majority of game one, striking out four batters in allowing only one hit and no runs.

Game two saw a bit more back-and-forth as Creston took a 1-0 lead in the second, but the Monarchs scored two in the bottom of the second to take their first lead of the night.

The Panthers responded with two of their own to take the 3-2 lead in the third inning.

The Monarchs tied it up at 3 apiece in the fourth. With neither scoring in the fifth or sixth, it came down to the seventh inning where the Panthers were able to get it done with a run and then hold off the Monarchs in the bottom.

“Defensively, that was probably our best effort we have given in a doubleheader in my tenure,” Phipps said. “We played clean baseball all night long and were able to make plays behind a quality pitching effort with Mikkelsen, Ray and [Parker] Varner.”

Ray pitched most of the game, striking out three batters and allowing three runs.

On offense it was four Panthers for four runs — freshmen Logan Stehr and Brady McDonald, senior Brayden Schoon and sophomore Cason Scarberry scoring.

Mikkelsen and Camden Smith each knocked down doubles and Varner led RBIs with two.

Tuesday, the Panthers traveled to Atlantic where the girls face a tough 10-4 team and the boys play the 1-8 Trojans. In their first matchups this season, Creston came away with the sweep. Results were not in by press time.

The Panthers return home Thursday as the girls host Red Oak in a doubleheader beginning at 5:30 p.m. and the boys play one game against the Tigers, scheduled at 7:30 p.m.

Friday begins the John Stephens Classic for the girls, a two-day tournament hosting 10 teams, including area teams Lenox, Clarke and East Union.

The boys host Clarke in a doubleheader Friday with game one starting at 5:30 p.m.