Central makes early exit in league softball tourney
Central Dutch Athletics
CEDAR RAPIDS—Central College is still clinging to its NCAA Division III softball tournament hopes but failed to advance its argument at the Iowa Conference tournament Saturday, suffering a 9-1 six-inning setback against Luther College.
Luther (35-8), which had split a doubleheader with Central Tuesday at Decorah, went on to knock off top-seeded host Coe College 4-0 to secure the league’s automatic berth in the 62-team NCAA field. The No. 17-rated Dutch (27-10) and Coe (26-12) are left hoping for an at-large berth.
Pairings for the Division III tournament will be announced on an NCAA tournament selection show Monday at noon via NCAA.com.
Central got off to an encouraging start Saturday when catcher Emily Walton (senior, Cedar Rapids, Jefferson HS) led off the second inning with a solo homer to left field, her second of the season.
But a one-out bloop hit to left field led to two Luther runs in the third inning. The Dutch loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the frame, only to come up empty. Then when Luther filled the bases in the fourth, center fielder Ashley Burrows jolted Central with a grand slam to center off Annie DeVries (senior, Eldridge, North Scott HS), who entered earlier in the inning in relief of Mariah Fritz (junior, Tama, East Marshall HS).
The game swung on just a few pitches, coach George Wares said.
“I felt really good with some of our opportunities,” he said. “But the same stuff–we get that little dink that we can’t catch and that keeps that inning going and then they score two after that. That seems to have happened so much this year. We make that play, we might get out of it, then have the bases loaded and instead of being down 2-1, we’re up 1-0, and that may be an even better opportunity in terms of, mentally, them being down and us being a little bit up. We still had a great chance, we just couldn’t get the hit we needed.”
Luther put the game away with a three-run sixth-inning homer.
Fritz (12-7) suffered the loss. She was charged with three runs on five hits with two walks and two strikeouts in 3.0 innings. DeVries gave up six runs on three hits with two walks in 3.0 innings.
Central was limited to four hits, including two by center fielder Sara Tallman (sophomore, Pella). Right fielder Shaye Witte (sophomore, West Des Moines, Waukee HS) also had a hit.
“Sara was really good all day and I thought Shaye made great adjustments from when we played (Luther) Tuesday,” Wares said.
Whether the Central resume is tournament-worthy will be determined by the championships committee, but Wares likes what he’s seen from the Dutch on and off the field.
“They’ve done a lot,” he said. “The difficulty of the schedule right away and to be able to handle that. And just the bounce-back they showed after real tough game one (doubleheader) losses. They’ve really invested in each other. I’m not going to say, comparatively, because that’s unfair, but they’ve invested in each other as well as any team we’ve had and they’ve bought into that part of it. I think that’s helped a lot but I also think that’s going to make the hurt a lot worse whenever it ends, whether it’s now or after some postseason game.”
Three extra-inning conference losses after giving up late leads were among the down moments, but shouldn’t be allowed to linger, Wares said.
“The frustration has been because I see how good we can be and not being able to get over that hump,” he said. “And, it’s us, too, as coaches, not being able to get our pitchers up just one more notch and not getting our hitters up one more notch, that’s the frustrating part. But the resiliency, and just the joy that they bring when they play. They have a lot of fun when they play and that’s fun to coach when you see that. You’ve got to be careful to not let that taste in your mouth from today dominate how you feel about the entire season.”
And Wares sees even loftier heights the Dutch can scale if Central’s name is called Monday.
“I still think we have the capability of beating anybody if we get that opportunity,” he said. “I don’t like to use the word deserve because a lot of teams deserve to get in but I do think this group does deserve to get that chance now.
“We’ve had others (past Central teams) that were kind of walking the edge in terms of whether we get in or not and then turned it on when we did . Hopefully this team gets that opportunity this year.”
The Dutch have made a Division III record 28 tourney appearances in the past 32 years, and with six berths in the past seven seasons, including 2017. Central’s captured four national titles.
