Lady Hawks rebound with win over HTC

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BY JOHN BOHNENKAMP
PCC SPORTS

WEST POINT — Central Lee didn’t have long to get over its Friday night loss to West Burlington-Notre Dame.
The Hawks had to play a morning game on Saturday against Holy Trinity, and it took them a little while to get going.
Central Lee’s sixth-run seventh inning helped seal a 9-2 win over the Crusaders in an SEI Superconference South Division game at South Park.
The Hawks (6-2 overall, 4-1 division) were coming off a 4-0 loss to division-leading WB-ND, and there was a bit of a hangover early in the game.
“We had a tough loss, and coming from that to this, it’s hard,” Central Lee coach Tiffany Woodruff said.
They came into the game, which was suspended because of weather on May 26, trailing 2-0 after one inning, but they didn’t get any runs until tying the game in the fifth inning on a two-run single from Meghan Hopp.
Before that, they had a runner thrown out at the plate in the fourth inning, then two runners thrown out on a double-steal attempt in the fifth.
“We struggled to get there,” Woodruff said of the inability to get runs earlier. “It took us a while, it took us a while to wake up. We don’t do so well in the mornings.
“We had some mistakes early. We’re better than that, and we know that.”
The Hawks took the lead in the sixth, putting together four consecutive singles. Bailey Schwartz’s single scored Carlee Pezley with the go-ahead run.
Then came the seventh. Kenna Sandoval’s two-run home run boosted the lead to 5-2. Marie Young then had a three-run double later in the inning, then Hopp closed the scoring with a run-scoring single.
“We know (Holy Trinity pitcher Mary Hellige) is really good, and she’s gotten better,” Woodruff said. “We knew we had to square up on her pitches and drive the ball.”
Holy Trinity (3-2, 2-1) missed chances to get runs early.
The Crusaders had runners on first and second with one out in the third, but Brooke Mueller’s line drive was turned into a double play.
Kayla Box led off the fourth inning with a single, but the Crusaders couldn’t move her up.
In the sixth, Hellige led off with a double and Mueller singled, but both runners were stranded.
“It’s frustrating,” Holy Trinity coach Loren Menke said. “But at the same time, we’re doing good things. Central Lee’s got a really good ballclub. We actually have never played them in a full seven innings, but we were able to do that.
“It’s frustrating because we felt we were right there. Had we made a play or two, who knows?”
Getting a divisional win was crucial for the Hawks.
“It’s good to get back on the winning train,” Woodruff said. “It was hard to swallow those first couple of innings to get going. But a win’s a win.”
Holy Trinity was coming off back-to-back wins over Mediapolis and New London.
“You want to win every game you play, obviously,” Menke said. “We’re 3-2, and it’s a good start. The good thing is we’re making less mistakes. This game last year would have been a run-rule game. We’re making progress, we’re making good plays. We just have to cut down on the mistakes.”

central lee, crusaders, hawks, Holy Trinity Catholic, lee county, Pen City Current, softball, sports, varsity

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