Lady Hawks one-game approach working

DONNELLSON — It is best to keep winning to keep pace in the traffic jam that is the Southeast Iowa Super Conference South Division softball race.
It’s why Central Lee coach Jason Hawk had no complaints with Monday’s 6-3 home win over Danville.
“All around, it was a good team win,” Hawk said.
Central Lee, 10-11 overall, moved to 5-3 in the South Division. Heading into Monday’s games, the Hawks and Van Buren had three losses in division play, while Mediapolis, West Burlington-Notre Dame and Holy Trinity each had four.
“It’s a big week,” said Hawk, whose team plays at WB-ND on Tuesday and at home against New London on Thursday, sandwiched around a nonconference game against Washington at the University of Iowa’s softball field in Iowa City. ‘That's why we’ve been talking about just worrying about the next game that’s ahead of us. It’s the best approach we can take.”
The Hawks had every answer for Danville (6-9, 2-8). The Bears took an early 1-0 lead on Brynley Wenig’s home run to left field in the first inning, but Central Lee’s Aubree Bunnell opened the bottom of the first with a solo homer to left. Marie Young’s ground out scored Olivia Day to give the Hawks a 2-1 lead.
Central Lee added a run in the second inning when Rayleigh Burden’s sacrifice fly scored courtesy runner Marcie Benner.
Danville got a run back in the fourth inning, then came the dark moment of the night for the Hawks in the bottom of the inning.

Young, who had opened the inning with a single and moved to second on a wild pitch, then stole third base but as she popped up from the slide, she hopped off the base and fell to the ground, crying out in pain. She had to be carried from the field and was taken to the hospital after the inning with an apparent knee injury.
“I just hate that for her,” Hawk said. “I’m not sure how bad it is but she was in a lot of pain. Hopefully she’s not hurt really bad. She’s already had a concussion this season. She’s a senior, and I hate for her to go out like this.”
Central Lee then broke open the game in the sixth, when Kenna Sandoval singled in a run, then Elaina Barlow drove in two more runs for a 6-2 lead.
Burden was the winning pitcher, finding her way through traffic all night but making key pitches when she had to, especially in the seventh, when Danville scored one run and had the tying run at the plate. But Burden struck out KoraRae Stott to end the game.
The Bears left nine runners on base in the game.
“That’s the thing I talked to Rayleigh about tonight,” Hawk said. “Just trust us, we're going to hit our spots, and I promise you it'll work. She’s starting to trust us a little bit as a pitcher, knowing that we don't want to throw it right down the middle, we want to hit our spots, where we call different pitches, and stuff like that. She pitched a good game tonight.”
The Hawks had eight hits.
“We only had two strikeouts as a team, and, and when you can do that, put the ball in play, put pressure on the other team, it's going to pay off,” Hawk said. “We're taking a better approach. We're a young team, and we're taking a better approach at the plate. We're not panicked anymore. We're getting later in the season, and we're doing a lot better job at the plate.”