Central wraps up Arizona trip on 14-game streak
Central College
TUCSON, ARIZ.—It began with disappointment but finished with new-found confidence as the Central College softball team closed a 16-game run at the Tucson Invitational Games riding a 14-game win streak.
The Dutch erupted for eight runs in the first inning and Kiley Lythberg (senior, Mount Prospect, Ill., Prospect HS) tossed a two-hit shutout as Central posted a 9-0, five-inning victory over North Central College (Ill.) Saturday. Earlier Central outlasted St. Catherine
(Minn.) 5-1. After losing their first two games, the No. 11-ranked Dutch surged to a 14-2 mark.
North Central (3-1) is expected to again contend for an NCAA Division III tournament berth but Central sent the game’s first nine batters to the plate without making an out. Eight of the first nine hitters scored in the inning. First baseman Katie Tenboer (senior, Morrison, Ill.) and catcher Caitlyn Meyer (sophomore, Newton) each had two-run singles. Center fielder Holly Von Fumetti (junior, Johnston) reached on a bunt single in the third inning, stole two bases and scored Central’s other run.
Lythberg (5-1) retired the first 11 batters she faced. In five scoreless innings she allowed two singles and a walk while striking out two.
In the opener with St. Catherine, the Dutch yielded an unearned run in the first inning and still trailed 1-0 heading into the fourth inning. But Central struck for four runs in the fourth inning, which was highlighted by freshman shortstop Annie Sarcone’s (Des Moines, Dowling Catholic HS) first collegiate home run, a three-run blast to left field. The Dutch added two runs in the fifth as second baseman Angela Davis (junior, West Des Moines, Valley HS) and Tenboer had RBI hits. Tenboer had two hits and a walk in three plate appearances in the game.
Brie Haycraft (freshman, Eldridge, North Scott HS) improved to 3-1, allowing just one hit and an unearned run over six innings against St. Catherine, striking out six and walking none. Rhianna Fleetwood (sophomore, Sycamore, Ill.) gave up two hits in one inning in closing.
“When you consider the fatigue you deal with in playing 16 games, the overall performance of all three pitchers was the best we’ve had this season,” coach George Wares said.
Haycraft lowered her earned run average to 1.83.
“She’s finding her stride,” Wares said. “She’s confident and understands the game pretty well. She’s not going to get a lot of strikeouts but understands, more than most freshmen, the importance of setting hitters up.
“Rhianna is showing more determination. She made one bad pitch today but the difference now over before was that the minute it happened, she knew what she did. She didn’t have to be told.
“And Kiley was outstanding again for five innings today.”
Central’s offense took advantage of the rock-hard desert infields and is off to a sizzling start, batting .371 as a team. Designated player Rachael Everingham (junior, Georgetown, Ill., Georgetown-Ridge Farm HS) led the team on the trip with a .476 average. Tenboer is hitting .452 with a team-high three home runs and 23 RBIs. Left fielder Bethany Koskamp (senior, Cedar Rapids, Kennedy HS) displayed remarkable bat control in hitting .411 while Lythberg is hitting .410 with 14 RBIs. Central’s running game hit high gear after a slow start. The Dutch hold a 47-7 advantage over foes in stolen bases.
Central is off until April 1, when the Dutch take on Washington-St. Louis (Mo.) and Grinnell at Grinnell. Wares promised that complacency will not be an issue in the interim.
“We’ll take a couple of days off but we want to keep the bats going,” he said. ”We’ll have lots of repetitions so we don’t lose anything. And we have a pretty long list of things we can do better individually and collectively as a team that we’ll work on.
“It’s still relatively early but the exciting thing from a coaching standpoint is we’ve got some pretty serious talent that we think can still be developed.”
