SIGOURNEY – Head Coach Loren Menke has just ushered in his first full four-year class of Crusaders softball players.
He’s the first to admit the seniors’ year didn’t end the way he wanted, but the Crusaders hung around with the Class 1A 8th-ranked Sigourney Savages in the Region 8 softball quarterfinals Wednesday night.
The Crusaders’ season came to end with a 9-0 loss to the Savages and played some strong defense, while senior Mary Hellige kept things under control on the mound.
HTC ends the year 11-12 overall and a respectable 6-6 in a pretty tough SEI Superconference.
“This year wasn’t quite what we wanted. We wanted a winning season, and we didn’t quite get that,” Menke said.
“We had some close games unfortunately we didn’t win. But I’m so proud of what we did. It was still the best season we’ve had.”
The Savages’ hurler Carly Goodwin was as good as expected moving through the first four innings in perfect fashion. Goodwin is third in the state in 1A with 273 strikeouts. She’s also tops in 1A in ERA at 0.24.
But HTC made a little noise in the top of the 5th with one out trailing 5-0.
Jenna DiPrima got some momentum going when her flare into right-center went off the glove of senior Courtney Hemsley for the Crusaders' first hit.
Eighth grader Sydney Jarvis then hit a grounder through the right side of the infield to move DiPrima’s courtesy runner Kara Lake up to second. Rachel Menke would move both into scoring position with two outs on her sacrifice bunt. But Goodwin would get one of her 13 strikeouts on the night to end the threat.
The junior would retire the Crusaders in order the rest of the way to get the win and send Sigourney into the regional semifinals Friday against Wapello.
Menke said he knew the Crusaders had to play a low-scoring game and play clean softball.
“This girl leads the state in strikeouts, averaging 2.5 per inning. I don’t think we had that many,” Menke said.
“We knew it had to be a low-scoring game and, once they got four or five runs, we knew it was going to be tough. We didn’t give up, kept playing, and had a couple chances there, but we had to make every play and we just didn’t do it tonight.”
Senior Mary Hellige gave up nine runs on 11 hits while fanning six and walking two.
DiPrima and Jarvis were the only Crusaders to reach base.
The Crusaders are graduating seven seniors including Hellige, Rachel Menke, Brooke Mueller, Kayla Box, Laura Mehmert, DiPrima, and Halie Cain.
“They showed steady improvement. Most of them are multi-sport athletes so they’re not dedicated to softball year-round like some girls. Stat-wise across the board almost every one of them improved since their freshman year,” Menke said.
He said there will be big shoes to fill for the underclassmen next year. Even with his daughter Rachel playing in her last season for Holy Trinity, he will stay part of the program.
“I really am enjoying the younger girls and I’m pouring so much time into getting this program going, along with these girls, I just feel like it would be wrong to walk away, so I’ll be there,” he said.
“It was never easy. We had plenty of people that said we couldn’t do it. We didn’t have kids, or didn’t have enough experience, but these girls hung in there and we were a solid team at the end of it.”
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