The Oskaloosa summer sports season continues to be an exciting one, as the rain shortened Indian Softball Classic showed us on Saturday.
The event, which brought 16 schools to the Lacey Recreation Complex, was eventually shortened by Mother Nature and the severe weather on Saturday. Prior to that, there was some fine softball being played, including a couple of big matchups for #1 Oskaloosa.
The first game was against Prairie City-Monroe, a team that has just fallen out of the rankings in Class 3A. Kylee Silliman was the Indians’ starting pitcher, and played admirably, striking out ten and allowing only four hits. Unfortunately for Oskaloosa, the offense couldn’t get anything across either, forcing extras. In a “classic” style event, to try to maintain time restraints and still get a result, the international tiebreaker was used, with a runner on second to start the inning to make scoring easier. PCM couldn’t advance the runner from second in their half of the 8th, popping up a bunt attempt and striking out twice in a row against Silliman to end their half of the frame. For Osky, Anna Jones was the runner at 2nd, and eventually moved to third on a Silliman groundout. On a full count, Alexis Westercamp got yet another game-winning RBI by bouncing a single over the third baseman’s head to give Osky the 1-0 win. Westercamp was the only Indian with multiple hits in the game.
The second game was the main event of the day, as top-ranked Oskaloosa, at 19-0, faced off against 3rd ranked Carlisle, the same squad that eliminated Oskaloosa in the state tournament in the quarterfinals last year. Things got off to a poor start, as Carlisle scored three runs in the first four innings off of Osky starter Alexis Groet. With their backs against the wall yet again, the offense refused to lose, as Groet reached base and scored, taking advantage of a couple of Carlisle errors. In the 6th, another error resulted in allowing Anna Jones to reach base, and Bethany Rowley would also reach on an error sacrificing her to second. Yet another big error in the outfield allowed the tying run to score after Kylee Silliman singled in both of the runners. Later in the inning, Aubrey Miller came up huge with a 2 run homer to give Oskaloosa the 5-3 lead, and that would be the final score. That home run broke a school record, as the Indians have already smashed 14 long balls this season. Oskaloosa took advantage of a total of six Carlisle errors.
Oskaloosa is now 20-0, the only undefeated team in all classes in the state of Iowa. Head Coach Jay Harms will try to keep the magic going, as he faces off against a tough conference foe in Pella Christian tonight. Pella Christian, the #6 team in Class 2A, was at the Indian Classic, and in their stiffest test of the day, fell by the slim margin of 1-0 to #2 Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont. PC looks to right the ship and continue their great season by hosting the Indians tonight, a game you can hear on the Mahaska Zone Network, 99.5 FM and AM 740 KMZN and on kboeradio.com. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:30 this evening, weather permitting. Our pregame will start around 7:15.
The Oskaloosa baseball team, sitting 11-3 on the year, also is on the road for a single varsity game against Pella Christian. That contest is also slated to start at 7:30 this evening.
Photo Provided By Bob Ballard
