Oskaloosa Defeats Grinnell To Advance In Regional Play
Oskaloosa defeated Grinnell on Thursday night, and advances to play Norwalk on Saturday.
by Jamie Brockman
The road to Fort Dodge has begun, and Oskaloosa Softball is one step closer following their 5-2 win over Grinnell in the opening round of the Class 4A Regionals Thursday night.
In front of a large, energetic home crowd Oskaloosa hit the ball hard all night with four doubles, five singles, and took advantage of four Tigers errors while playing stout defense while Hayle Hacker, playing ill, struck out 13 batters in an impressive performance.
Grinnell threatened in the top of the first inning with runners at second and third and one out, but Hacker struck out the next two batters with no runs scored.
Oskaloosa answered in the bottom of the first when Meghan Moorman led off with a base hit, her courtesy runner Macie Krier advanced to second on a sacrifice from Ashley Kindley, then Ava Vandewall reached on a Grinnell error scoring Krier to take a 1-0 lead.
After retiring Grinnell in order in the top of the second, Sophia Dykstra led off the bottom of the inning with a double followed by a single from Taylor Wills but didn’t score. Ashley Kindley led off Oskaloosa’s third inning with a double, then scored on a sac fly from Abby Braundmeier. Maddie Haines ripped a two-out double then scored on an RBI single from Dykstra who went 3-3 at the plate, and the Indians held a 3-0 lead after three innings. Osky added another in the fourth after Maleah Walker reached on an error and scored on an RBI single from Moorman.
Grinnell scored their two runs in the top of the fifth inning on a single from Meredith McKnight followed by a two-run home run to left field by Megan Doty to pull within 4-2, but Osky wasn’t done yet. The Indians plated another in the bottom of the fifth. With one out, Haines reached on an error, and Dykstra singled. After the second out, Kaylee Johnson walked to load the bases and the 8th grader Walker came to bat. Walker laid a bunt down the first base line scoring Haines who slid in ahead of the throw home.
Oskaloosa scored five runs on nine hits, committed one error and stranded eight runners. Grinnell scored two runs on eight hits, committed four errors and also stranded eight.
Hacker upped her record to 18-8 pitching seven innings, allowing two runs on eight hits. She struck out 13 and walked two.
At the plate, Dykstra was 3-3 with a double, two singles and 1 RBI, Moorman had two singles, Kindley had a sacrifice bunt and two doubles, Haines had a double, and Wills had a single.
The win improves the 14th ranked Indians to 23-14 on the season and they will travel to Norwalk to face the Warriors for the fourth time this season in the Class 4A Region 1 semifinal Saturday night at 7 pm.
