Lady Hounds come up short at WB

WEST BURLINGTON – Fort Madison Head Coach Jared Rehm feels better about the Lady Hounds season after Thursday’s 7-5 loss to West Burlington on the road.
The loss is the second in two days after the Hounds fell 3-1 to Fairfield Tuesday night in a Southeast Conference game.
“After today day I feel better than after yesterday. We’ve had some down dugouts. We started the season with great energy but yesterday we were a bit lacking,” Rehm said.
“We needed to work on some communication pieces and we gave them some challenges today and they responded.”
Fort Madison jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead when senior Erika Kruse blasted a 3-2 offering from West Burlington’s Lauren Summers over the centerfield fence.
West Burlington had runners in scoring position in the bottom half following a missed popup by catcher Kylie Lumino. But some base running blunders and some snap throws by the Hounds allowed a double play off a flyout to center. Fort Madison was able to hold up Krieger at 3^rd who tried to tag up. Lumino fired down to third to get Krieger trying to get back to the bag, but she was called safe. However, a quick throw to second caught Summers between the bags and allowed the Hounds to get out of the inning.
Fort Madison would carry the 2-0 lead into the bottom of the third when the Falcons cut into the lead on a one-out RBI double to left center from Summers. Kruse would get the hosts to pop out and ground out to get out of the inning holding the 2-1 lead.
Taylor Johnson slapped the first pitch she saw in the top of the fifth into center field to get things going again for the Lady Hounds. Olivia Holmes then laid down a sacrifice bunt to get the speedy Johnson moving on the base paths. The throw to first got away and went all the way down the right field line allowing both Johnson and Holmes to come around to score to make it 4-1.
Emily Steffensmeier then executed the drag bunt for a single and Neeley Rehm moved her over with a sacrifice bunt bringing the free swinging Kruse to the plate. WBND Head Coach Dave Oleson didn’t want anything to do with the senior, so he intentionally passed her to get to Lauryn Helmick. Summers would work a ground out from Helmick and then fanned Elizabeth Tanner to get out of the inning.
West Burlington then went to work in the bottom on the frame. Madelyn Thomas drew a walk and Anna Engberg singled to shallow center to put two on. Lauren Krieger would then reach on a bunt single loading the bases. Summer would lift a short fly down the left field line that Johnson made a diving attempt to get. The ball bounced over Johnson's glove and headed down the line scoring three.
Elise Oleson would hit a sharp single to center to put two on again. Shona Andersen would fan and then Madalynn Knapp deposited a shot just over the fence in dead center to score three more runs before Kruse could put things back together and get out of the inning.
Fort Madison would get a homer from Elle Ruble in the top of the sixth with nobody on and that’s all the scoring the Hounds would get before Summers locked things down in the top of the 7^th.
Rehm said Johnson made a good jump on Summers fly ball down the line.“I think she made a really good play out there it just didn’t work out,” Rehm said.
The Hounds are playing without slugger Lexi Whaley who underwent shoulder surgery at the start of the season. But 8^th grader Lumino has been filling in nicely behind the plate. Despite the pop fly in the first inning, Lumino had some snappy throws down the lines to keep runners close.
Rehm said he was happy with the Hounds’ effort.
“I’m very happy with the play against a good team like West Burlington. There was a lot of back-and-forth and I think we responded well,” he said.
Steffensmeier led the Hounds at the plate with two hits.  Kruse had two RBI and went all six innings striking out four and walking one while giving up all seven runs earned.
Fort Madison falls to 2-4 on the year and hosts Fairfield tonight in Southeast Conference matchup at Baxter Sports Complex.