Osky Girls Struggle To End Regular Season
Oskaloosa Indians
by Matt Saville
For the Oskaloosa girls softball team it may be a good thing that it’s tournament time, so they can get refocused and make a playoff run for a state appearance, because the final couple weeks of the regular season have not been friendly to the lady Indians. They went 0-4 this week against top league teams in Norwalk and Dallas Center Grimes.
Monday was Senior night and it did not play out the way that the Indians had planned. Norwalk came to town with the Indians needing to sweep the Warriors in order to have a chance of still catching DCG in Little Hawkeye Conference standings. The Warriors were having no part of it, as they beat the Indians 5-2 in the first game and 14-2 in the second game.
A few of the high lights on a down night were freshman Aubrey Miller hitting another home run and collecting both RBI’s in the first game. In the second game freshman Alexis Westercamp went 2-2 with 2 doubles and 1 RBI, as senior Bridgette Richards also had an RBI single.
Looking to try to right the ship and go into the post season on a positive note, the lady Indians were hoping to travel to DCG Tuesday night and shock the states #1 ranked 4A team. Unfortunately, even though the Indians battled in the first game pitch for pitch and played much better than Monday night, it was a familiar face that put a stop to the Indians. That face was, best pitcher in the state, Paige Lowary. The Missouri bound senior was on her game, as usual, and held the Indians to 2 hits, while striking out 13 Indians for a 3-0 DCG win. Freshman Alexis Groet was her normal solid self as she went 5 innings, giving up 2 hits, allowing 3 earned runs with 2 walks and 3 strikeouts. Sophomore Kylee Silliman went 1 inning, shutting DCG down in that inning.
Game 2 was different as DCG turned to freshman Rachel Lowary. She seems to be on path to follow in her older sister’s footsteps, as she held Osky in check for the 8-0 win. Getting singles for the Indians were senior Callie Arnold, freshmen Alexis Westercamp and Aubrey Miller.
Oskaloosa was to play Pella in the first round of the playoffs Saturday night but was rained out. They will now play that game Monday night in Oskaloosa at 5:30. The Indians are 27-9-1 on the season.
