Hawks overcome HTC's quick start to notch win

DONNELLSON — Central Lee’s softball team got an early jolt from Holy Trinity in Thursday’s season opener.
It was a quick reminder to the Hawks that, with three consecutive Southeast Iowa Super Conference South Division titles behind them and a No. 15 (Class 3A) preseason ranking on them this season, that they are going to get everyone’s best effort this season.
“And they know that,” coach Jason Hawk said after the 8-3 win. “We won the conference three years in a row, but the past means nothing to me. But other teams want to beat us, and our girls know that. We do have targets on our back, which means we have to give our best.”
Three batters into this season, the Hawks were down 3-0. Kenna Gittings led off the game with a single, Alivia Holmes followed with a single, then Sydney Jarvis drilled a home run to left-center field.
“That wasn’t the start we wanted,” Hawk said, laughing. “It was a little rough. But I thought we settled down.”
Holy Trinity coach Loren Menke liked the start, but thought the Crusaders could have had more runs in that inning. They loaded the bases with one out, but the Hawks got out of the inning by getting Brooklyn Todd on a popout to first base and then Claire Crabtree’s hard ground ball was snagged by Central Lee shortstop Kenna Sandoval, who threw to third base for the force out to end the inning.
“Claire really hit a hard shot with the bases loaded there that they made a nice play on,” Menke said. “That could have been a bigger inning.”
The Hawks got two runs back in the bottom of the inning, an answer Hawk said they needed.

“We settled down all the way around,” Hawk said. We let the nerves get to us a little bit, we were a little nervous. Once we got out of the top of the inning, then scored two runs in the bottom of the inning, we got the nerves out.”
Central Lee tied the game in the third inning when Aubree Bunnell’s single scored Marie Young.
“Now it’s a different game,” Hawk said.
The Hawks then broke open the game with a five-run fourth inning in which a wild pitch and two errors contributed to three runs.
“We just kept putting the pressure on them,” Hawk said. “In that inning, we played a little bit of small ball, put a little pressure on them, and they made some mistakes. And that made a difference.”
“They put the pressure on us in the fourth,” Menke said. “We have a good group. We’re going to be a good team. But we can’t make those mistakes against the good teams. If we want to be good, we’ve got to play better. Too many mental mistakes. A lot of silly mistakes, really.”
Holy Trinity had runners in scoring position in three of the last six innings, but couldn’t score against Central Lee pitcher Elaina Barlow.
“After that first inning, she pitched much better,” Hawk said. 
“We definitely weren’t on our ‘A’ game, and that’s a credit to Central Lee,” Menke said. “They’re going to make you beat them, they’re not going to let you beat them.”