Indians Suffer Second Loss To Ranked Team
Oskaloosa Indians Softball vs Dallas Center – Grimes
Oskaloosa, Iowa – Mother Nature has been playing havoc on softball and baseball games around the area for a little over a week. With a soaked home field, the Indians softball squad moved their home game against a very good Dallas Center-Grimes to the Lacey Recreation Complex.
“I thought the kids battled. I thought we really played hard. A great softball game,” Head Coach Jay Harms said about the team’s performance on Thursday night. Ultimately, DCG would win the evening 2-0 over the Indians.
“It was a great softball game. They are a quality program,” said harm of the DCG team.
The DCG Fillies are consecutive Class 4-A state softball champions. Harm said that the DCG team has suffered so far this year in the pitching department, but now their star pitcher is back in action.
Harm talked about the fan support the team has enjoyed this year, and that the fans are really “fired up” and supportive of the team. Harms talked about how phenomenal the fan support from last year was and how it’s transferred to this year. “They’ve been tremendous,” said Harms of the fan support. “A lot of fun for me as a coach to see the community get behind a summer program.”
The tough battle between the two teams was a tune-up of sorts for state competition. Harms said it was “like a state atmosphere game tonight.”
The teams battle and you’ve got to be able to make plays. “We battled out of some jams and they [DCG] got the one little break they needed. We had the opportunity. We left 10 runners stranded.We’ve got to find ways to get those runners in when we have opportunities.”
“I think we outhit them 10 hits to 5, yet they still win with 2 on the scoreboard.” Said Harms.
This year has been a bit of a magical season for the Indians softball squad. The team placed 5th at state to end the season last year, and the shirts worn around the field say, ‘New Team, Same Dream’.
That dream has been taking shape as the girls have been ranked 1st in Class 4A, something no other Indians softball squad has even accomplished.
We asked Harms when he knew this year’s team would turn out like it has. “I knew we would have a nice ball club, I never thought we’d get out and win 20 games in a row.”
“We knew with the pitching we had, with Alexis [Groet] back, and Kylee [Silliman], that we’d be in a lot of ballgames. I didn’t know if we’d have enough firepower offensively to be able to score runs like we did early in the season.”
Harms said that the schedule was good to the team, and they were able to get off to a good start. “I think our kids got very confident and our younger kids stepping in and playing got off to a really good start. I think that just gave them the confidence they needed to be able to battle and play at this level. These kids have just competed and played very, very well.”
The Indians are at home against Newton Monday night.
