Lady Hawks win SEISC title

HITTING A STRIDE

These last three or four games, we’re starting to hit the ball as a team. We’ve played good defense all year, but I think we’re playing even better now as we’ve cleaned up a couple of little things.”

Jason Hawk, Central Lee Head Coach

DONNELLSON — One goal down.
Central Lee’s girls softball team wrapped up its third consecutive Southeast Iowa Super Conference South Division title with a 9-1 win over West Burlington-Notre Dame on Tuesday night.
It’s just the first step for the 14th-ranked (Class 3A) Hawks, coach Jason Hawk said.
“You want to win the conference,” Hawk said. “That’s the first thing we talk about doing, and now that goal is met. We’re not done yet. We’ve got bigger goals ahead, and that’s what we’re going to be looking at now.”
It was the second game in what is scheduled to be an eight-game week for the Hawks (18-3 overall, 10-0 division) and, like Monday’s 11-3 win at Mediapolis, this one got done early under the IGHSAU 8-run rule.
“We’ve done a good job,” said Hawk, whose team plays Washington at the University of Iowa’s Pearl Field on Wednesday night. “Let’s celebrate this one, and then get ready for tomorrow night, because we’ve got another big game, and then we’ve got more games this week.
“We played a seven-game week (in June) and went 6-1, and now we’ve got eight games this week. We’ll be ready.”
Central Lee took advantage of six WB-ND errors — “I think I counted 11,” WB-ND coach David Oleson said — and broke the game open with a four-run third inning that included Kenna Sandoval’s two-run home run that almost hit the school’s FFA building beyond the left-field fence, and nearly did some other damage.
“That’s where I parked my truck,” Hawk said, laughing. “It bounced right by my truck.”
Central Lee, which won its fifth consecutive game, sent nine batters to the plate in the third inning, then sent eight to the plate in the three-run fourth, a relentless offensive attack for the second consecutive night.
Carlee Pezley’s home run to left field opened the fourth, part of a four-hit outburst in the inning.
Pezley, Sandoval and Marie Young, the Hawks’ 2-3-4 hitters in the lineup, each had two hits.
“With all the work we put in during the offseason, I told the girls I thought we would hit our midseason form before tonight,” Hawk said. “These last three or four games, we’re starting to hit the ball as a team. We’ve played good defense all year, but I think we’re playing even better now as we’ve cleaned up a couple of little things.”
“To be honest, I’ve never coached a game where we’ve had as many errors as we had tonight,” Oleson said. “But they’re such a good hitting team, you can’t give them chances like that. And defensively, they play really well. If they do make a mistake, they just move on.”
Jalyn Hawk was the winning pitcher, allowing four hits and an unearned run over five innings.
One goal down.
“When I first started three years ago, we (won a conference title) after 49 years, or 46 years, whatever it was, and some of these girls were on that team,” Hawk said. “Then we do it last year, and then again this year. That just shows the commitment, the work ethic, and everything that these girls put in. And that's the biggest thing.”