The Oskaloosa softball team has been on a roll lately, and that roll continued with a hard fought win against archrival Pella on Thursday night.
The Indians have had a long week, as the game with the Lady Dutch was their fourth straight night playing a conference game. After a grueling pitchers’ duel, Osky also got their fourth straight win, 1-0 in 8 innings.
The first seven innings were dominated by both teams’ pitching and defense.
Oskaloosa’s Alexis Groet continued her string of dominant outings by allowing only two hits in the first seven innings of play and walked only two. The big surprise was Pella senior Alexa Dingeman, who matched Groet out-for- out.
Dingeman would strike out Kylee Silliman and Alexis Westercamp twice each on the night. That is notable because Silliman and Westercamp both came in with two strikeouts each on the season.
After seven innings of three-hit ball, however, Pella opted to lift their senior and bring in sophomore Sabrina Tallman. Dingeman pitched eight innings in a victory against Pella Christian on Wednesday night, and with sophomore ace Kinzi Van Wyk on the shelf with an injury, Pella Head Coach Robin Llewellyn decided to pull Dingeman to keep her fresh for the next couple of days.
Oskaloosa would pounce immediately on Tallman, as Anna Jones led off the 8 th with an infield hit, and Aubrey Miller would follow with an RBI double to score Jones from first.
Osky couldn’t add a second run, but that’s all that Alexis Groet and the defense would need.
The biggest defensive play of the game for the Indians came in the bottom of the 8 th as All-State leadoff hitter Sara Tallman came to the plate with one out for the Lady Dutch. On a 3-2 pitch, Tallman roped a ball off the wall in left-center field. As she rounded second and headed for third, left fielder Josie Bunnell got to the ball quickly and fired a strike to Kylee Silliman, who then relayed the ball to third where Devan Welch made the tag for the second out. Groet would induce a groundout on the next batter to end the game.
Oskaloosa moved to 19-3 with the victory and sit in good shape at 8-2 in the Little Hawkeye Conference. Pella fell to 13-11 overall and 3-7 in the conference.
Osky is back in action Friday in Solon against two 5A opponents: Des Moines Lincoln and Iowa City High. After getting the weekend off, Oskaloosa returns to conference action to face #13 Newton on the road before facing Eddyville-Blakesburg- Fremont next Tuesday at home. The Indians wrap up conference play next Wednesday with a home game against Norwalk.
You can hear the EBF and Norwalk games on our airwaves on 99.5 FM/740 AM KMZN, the KMZN mobile app, and radiokmzn.com starting with the pregame at 7:15 with the first pitch scheduled for 7:30.
