Panthers go 2-2 in Stephens Classic

Creston went 2-2 in the John Stephens Classic over the weekend as the 50th anniversary of Panther Field was celebrated.

The late John Stephens and wife Ruby were leaders in the development of girls athletics at Creston High School and the volunteer construction effort for the current playing field that was developed in 1973 after two seasons of games at the VFW ballfield. An announcement was read prior to Creston’s final game against Dallas Center-Grimes about the history of that development. The classic was dedicated in the name of Stephens in 2000.

The Panthers went 1-1 each day in the 2023 event. Creston opened with an 11-2 win over Bondurant-Farrar Friday morning before falling 9-2 against Class 5A fourth-ranked Ankeny Friday evening.

On Saturday, Creston opened the morning with an 11-0 win over Mount Ayr in five innings. DC-G, ranked fourth in Class 4A, concluded the day with back-to-back victories of 3-0 over Saydel and 11-3 over Creston.

“I thought it was a pretty good weekend for us, in terms of getting a lot of experience in different situations and learning from them,” Creston coach Dave Hartman said. “I think what we have to learn is that when we play real high-level teams, our margin for error is really small. When you play some of the teams on our schedule you can drop two flyballs and still win the game. When you play Dallas Center-Grimes or Ankeny, you cannot, because they won’t. DC-G wasn’t hammering us around the park, but we gave them extra outs and that makes it tough. But, you own it and move on. I’ve seen major leaguers miss a flyball. It happens.”

Creston, now 7-6 overall and 5-2 in Hawkeye Ten play, travels to Carroll tonight (Monday) to take on Kuemper Catholic. The Knights are 11-8 overall and 2-3 in the league, coming off a split against 2-12 Red Oak after surprising Atlantic with a 7-0 shutout win.

“What we’re seeing is that anybody in this league can beat anybody because there isn’t a dominant team,” Hartman said. “You have to make plays and get some hits. That’s probably the way it should be.”

Recaps of the Creston game in the classic:

Creston 11, Bondurant-Farrar 2

Shortstop Nevaeh Randall was the Ron “Fox” Clinton player of the game for Creston after hitting two home runs, a two-run single and six RBIs. Randall has eight home runs this season, increasing her school career record to 34 roundtrippers. She had 10 home runs last year in surpassing Haylee LaMasters’ previous record of 22 home runs.

Third baseman Zoey Vandevender hit a double and drove in two runs. Center fielder Jersey Foote stroked a pair of doubles and scored two runs. Right fielder Mila Kuhns had a double and RBI.

Keely Coen pitched the win with six hits allowed, three strikeouts and one walk. Hartman was impressed with his lineup coming up with nine hits against B-F pitcher Jacki Baas, who compiled 10 strikeouts and no walks.

“Until we played Ankeny later that day, I thought the Bondurant girl was the best pitcher we’d faced so far and we got some great at-bats,” Hartman said. “She’s going to DMACC. She throws hard with a lot of sink on her ball. For us to get 11 (runs) on her, I was happy.”

Ankeny 9, Creston 2

A rough start doomed Creston’s upset bid against one of the top Class 5A teams in the state. Ankeny bolted to a 6-0 lead on the strength of three hits, three Panther errors and a hit by pitch as the Hawks sent 10 batters to the plate in the opening frame against starting pitcher Taryn Fredrickson.

From there, it was just a 3-2 game as the Panthers generated some offense in the fifth inning. Daile Keeler and Foote hit back-to-back doubles and Jacy Kralik followed with an RBI single. Kralik was the player of the game, going 2-3 with an RBI.

Fredrickson went the distance, allowing 10 hits with five strikeouts and one walk. Two Ankeny pitchers combined to allow just four hits with nine strikeouts.

“They’re a really good pitching and defensive team and they’re a hard team to score a lot on,” Hartman said. “I thought Taryn threw some great pitches. If we’d played (better) in the first inning, we’d have been right in that game. We settled into the game a little bit and played much better after the first inning.”

Creston 11, Mount Ayr 0

With Mount Ayr’s primary pitcher Zoey Larsen held out with injury, Creston’s offense generated 11 runs in four innings against pitchers Taylor Lumbard and Abby Larson. Fredrickson pitched the victory, allowing four hits with four strikeouts and no walks.

Catcher Ava Adamson was Creston’s player of the game, going 3-3 with a single, double and home run and four RBIs. Kalee Wise was 1-1 with a hit by pitch as Mount Ayr’s honored player.

Foote also homered for Creston, knocking in two runs while scoring three times. Sophie Hagle had two RBIs on two singles and a walk. Fredrickson doubled and Kralik hit a sacrifice fly.

“It’s always a challenge to get up early in the morning and play, but I thought we did a pretty good job,” Hartman said. “We played pretty clean. Ava really swung it well.”

Dallas Center-Grimes 11, Creston 3

Dallas Center-Grimes broke open a 3-1 game with two straight four-run innings.

Summer Campbell was DC-G’s player of the game after a three-hit performance that included a home run and two RBIs. Vandevender got the award for Creston, going 2-3 with a double and RBI. Hagle also had a double and RBI. Foote and Randall each stroked a pair of hits, including a double by Foote.

Coen took the loss in the circle, yielding 15 hits with two strikeouts and two walks.

“We gave them two many extra outs,” Hartman said. “But we stayed in the fight and worked our way back in. Zoey is playing pretty well and she’s hitting it. Sophie is giving us some great at-bats and she can move runners. We’re doing some good things.”