Bach delivers Central softball winner in Arizona
TUCSON, ARIZONA—Second baseman Haley Bach (sophomore, Council Bluffs, Lewis Central HS) capped a torrid week with a run-scoring seventh-inning hit for a walk-off Central College softball team win over No. 16-ranked Concordia University (Wis.) Friday 4-3.
The come-from-behind win helped the No. 23 Dutch (13-3) avert a doubleheader sweep after dropping a 5-4 decision in 10 innings in the first game of the doubleheader. And it gives Central a 2-1 edge in the two teams’ hard-fought three games in Arizona. It also wraps up a 12-game appearance at the Tucson Invitational Games where the squad was 10-2.
“All three games against (Concordia) were highly competitive,” coach George Wares said. “They’ve got a really nice team—great pitching, tough outs and it was a regional-type atmosphere. It’s good for our players to go through that because that will help us going into (American Rivers play) where we have some pretty intense doubleheaders.”
But the victory also gives the Dutch an emotional lift that will help carry them back to Iowa and the start of the northern portion of their schedule.
“Without question,” Wares said. “These games are in the memory banks of the players in terms of what we might have to do later when you lose the first game of a tough doubleheader against some league opponent and then, 20 minutes later, you have to come back and play again. There are a lot of things that you can learn from competition like that.”
In her last 10 games, Bach is hitting .485. She had four hits Friday and drove in two runs.
But the Dutch were on the brink of getting swept, trailing 3-1 entering the sixth inning of the second game. First baseman Megan Stuhr (junior, Sigourney) and left fielder Megan Doty (senior, Grinnell) each had RBI hits in the sixth to tie it. Then in the seventh, catcher Madison Farrington (senior, Marshalltown, East Marshall HS) led off with a single. Pinch-runner Anya Kistenmacher (sophomore, Holstein, Ridge View HS) was sacrificed to second, raced to third on a passed ball and scored the winner on Bach’s single to right field.
Sydni Huisman (senior, Treynor) went the distance, giving up three runs on seven hits with a walk and two strikeouts to improve to 7-1.
Those performances were key but Wares said the Dutch defense was the difference.
“(Shortstop) Carson Fisk (senior, Searsboro, Lynnville-Sully HS) might have saved the game for us,” he said. “We were down 3-1 in the sixth with runners on second and third and there’s a ball up the middle that I’m thinking is a base hit. But she made a great play and threw the kid out at first by a step. That kept it at 3-1 and really gave us some life.
“And Megan Doty caught one (in left field) that I think might have been a home run if she didn’t catch it in the top of the seventh. She made a good read and a game-saving catch.”
Wares also pointed to a web gem by Bach at second base.
“There were some defensive plays that were elite,” he said.
Central had plenty of opportunities in the opener. The Dutch were up 2-1 in the sixth inning when Concordia (9-2) pulled even. The international tiebreaker rule was employed in the eighth inning, which started with a runner placed on second base. Both teams scored a run in the ninth and Central got another in the top of the 10th, only to give up two runs in the bottom of the inning.
But going against one of the region’s top pitchers, Gina Followell, Central produced nine hits and a pair of earned runs. The Dutch countered with freshman Emma Beck (Holland, Grundy Center HS), and she answered with one of the best showings of her young career, with strong support from reliever Morgan Schaben (senior, Portsmouth, Harlan HS).
“Emma was phenomenal,” Wares said. “Obviously for most people, the decision probably would have been to go with Sydni (Huisman) against their ace. We decided to go the other way because we wanted to see how the freshman could respond and she was good. She gave up a home run but they didn’t do much else against her until the sixth, when they had runners on first and second with nobody out. Then Morgan Schaben came in and did what she does. She was really good.”
Beck allowed two runs on five hits with no walks and five strikeouts. Schaben (3-2) allowed one earned run in 4.1 innings on four hits, with four intentional walks during the tiebreaker and three strikeouts.
Bach had three hits in the game while Doty had two and scored twice.
“If we had lost (the second game) there were still a whole lot of positives,” Wares said. “But to win, we now have even more positives and it makes it easier to talk with the team about the negatives.”
The Dutch have a couple more games with some regional significance when they make their home debut next Friday against Greenville College (Ill.), which carries a 3-1 record into a doubleheader with Harris-Stowe State University (Mo.). Friday’s twinbill starts at 3 p.m. at the A.N. Kuyper Athletics Complex softball field.
