By Sam Parsons
The Oskaloosa Indians softball team made the short road trip to Pella to take on the Dutch on Friday night. The Dutch were winners of 4 games in a row, and proved that their momentum was too strong for the Indians on the evening.
Osky came into the game having scored only one run in their previous 3 games combined; and, unfortunately, their bats remained cold on Friday night. Pella pitcher Emma Eekhoff, who was one of three seniors honored during the pregame Senior Night festivities, silenced the Indian batting order to the tune of a 6-inning performance in which she allowed only 2 base hits and 3 walks while striking out 7. The one run that came across for Oskaloosa was unearned for Eekhoff.
Osky scored their only run in the top of the 6th inning. Sophomore Haylee Parker reached base on a walk, and then freshman Jillian Parks reached on an error, which allowed Parker to advance to third base. From there, junior Loghan Edgar was able to drive Parker in with an RBI single.
Pella scored 5 runs on the night off of Osky senior pitcher Shannon Van Rheenen, though only 3 of them were earned. Their first run was scored in the first inning when Eekhoff, their leadoff hitter, hit a bomb over the center field fence to take the lead 1-0. And later, in the 5th inning, the Dutch were able to load the bases, courtesy of a single from Eekhoff as well as errors allowing sophomore Avery Parks and junior Katie Scheckel to reach base back-to-back. That set the table for sophomore catcher Lucy Carlson to go yard with a grand slam, a no-doubter over the right field fence to extend Pella’s lead to 5-0.
Ultimately, Oskaloosa fell short in their comeback effort in the final two innings, and the final score was 5-1 in favor of Pella, who won their 5th straight contest to improve their record to 15-10.
Oskaloosa (10-18) has four more games left in the regular season. Next up, they will travel to Indianola on Tuesday night for their final conference game of the season.
On July 10, Oskaloosa will host Mount Pleasant for their first round playoff game. That will be broadcast on KBOE 104.9 FM and kboeradio.com starting at around 6:40pm.
