Saints pull away from Osage softball
ST. ANSGAR — The first three innings of the Top of Iowa East Conference rivalry softball game, Osage and St. Ansgar matched each other hit-for-hit, score after score.
But the home Saints team eventually pulled away for the 6-3 victory on Friday, June 18.
“They were a good-hitting ball club what I knew going into this game,” St. Ansgar coach Lance Schutjer said. “We knew we had to keep them off the bases because they have such good hitters. They started matching up with us, I told the girls to make sure if they get a run we get a run. We needed to match whatever they do and then we figured out their pitcher the second time around and were a little bit more fortunate.
“We left too many runners on base in my opinion, but we got the runs when we needed to.”
After the Green Devils fought back to tie the score at 3-all on a two-run double by Jaden Francis, who homered in her first at-bat, Brooklyn Hackbart, who led the Saints offense by going 3-for-4, scored the go-ahead run in the third and then added insurance with a two-run homer.
The Green Devils combined for five hits, all in the first three innings.
“I felt like we hit the ball pretty well all game and there were some cases where we hit the ball where they made some good plays on,” Osage coach Ryan Huffman said. “I felt good about our bats and obviously three runs…we might have left a few out there, but I thought our kids did a good job of putting the ball in play.”
St. Ansgar pitcher Josie Juhl seemed to gain confidence as the game went along, striking out the side in the fifth after getting the lead. She struck out 10, and struck out Leah Grimm all four times up to the plate.
“She’s an eighth-grader and first time seeing her,” Huffman said, “and sometimes you see certain pitchers differently and Leah is still battling.”
The Saints tallied 10 hits and also keyed on four Osage errors.
“We need to clean up our errors this week alone,” Huffman said. “This team, if we clean up the errors, we’re real good. We have to keep working at.”
More on this story appears in the June 26 print edition of the Enterprise Journal.
