MEPO cools off HTC at South Park

WEST POINT — It took a half-inning for the momentum of Holy Trinity’s biggest win of the season to go away.
Mediapolis’ three-run top of the first inning in Tuesday’s Southeast Iowa Super Conference softball game at South Park left the Crusaders chasing the Bullettes the rest of the night in an 8-4 loss.
It was a chance for Holy Trinity (12-4 overall, 3-3 division) to build on Monday’s 7-0 win over No. 8 (Class 1A) Highland and get a step ahead in the South Division race. Instead, the Bullettes (8-8, 4-3) moved into a tie with West Burlington-Notre Dame for second place, percentage points behind leader Central Lee in the standings.
“We might have had a little bit of a letdown from last night,” Holy Trinity coach Loren Menke said. “But Mediapolis is really, really good, and they made plays and we didn’t.”
The Crusaders committed five errors, all coming in the innings when Mediapolis scored runs.
The first error, with two outs in the first inning, kept the inning alive and the Bullettes pounced. Avery Bandy drove in a run with a single, then Maycie Thornburg followed with a two-run single.
“That first inning really kind of hurt us a little bit,” Menke said. “They jumped on us, and getting in a hole like that, you’re then trying to dig your way out of it. We were kind of digging our way out of it, but just couldn't quite get far enough.”

The Crusaders got a run back on Morgan Krogmeier’s RBI double in the second inning, then got to within 3-2 in the third when Makayla Simpson singled in Alivia Holmes.
Two errors in the fifth inning led to three Mediapolis runs and pushed the Bullettes’ lead to 6-2, then Holy Trinity answered with a run in the bottom of the inning on Cadyn Holmes’ home run to left field.
The Crusaders cut the lead to 6-4 in the sixth inning when Sydney Jarvis doubled to bring in Alivia Holmes, but Mediapolis closed the scoring with two runs in the seventh, an inning in which Holy Trinity committed two more errors.
“They’re a good team,” Menke said of the Bullettes. “They beat Louisa-Muscatine, which is No. 1 in the state, earlier this season. They took advantage of the things we did.”
Holy Trinity’s success this season has been built with timely hits, but the Crusaders left eight runners on base in this game.
“They were able to drive runs in, and we left some runners out there,” Menke said.
Holy Trinity plays Thursday at West Burlington-Notre Dame.
“We’re going to take tomorrow off,” Menke said. “We’ve played a lot of games, and we’ve got some players banged up a little bit. So we’re going to give them a day off, and then get back at on Thursday. That’s going to be a big game.”