PELLA — On a day when the Central College softball team saw its Iowa Conference title hopes dealt a decisive blow, it wasn't hard for coach
George Wares to figure out why.
"Luther (College) was better," Wares said of the No. 4-ranked Norse, who swept 12th-rated Central 4-2 and 3-1 Tuesday.
Luther (29-3 overall) took firm command of the league race with a 7-1 mark and a two-game lead in the loss column. Central is 25-7 overall and 7-3 in conference play. The Dutch fell behind early in both contests and saw comeback bids stymied. Luther excelled at two traditional areas of strength for the Dutch, pitching and defense, and it was the latter that left Wares particularly impressed.
"We're both obviously good teams," he said. "And all of the pitchers, I thought, actually threw pretty well. But in the second game, in particular, that's as good of a defensive team—at least today—as we've seen in quite a while. (In the second game) we felt like we were going to have something left in the seventh (inning), but they took a couple of base hits away and shut down any chances we had to score more than one."
Luther jumped on top with two runs in the first inning of the opener and added two with a home run off
Karly Olson (senior, Winterset) in the third for a 4-0 advantage. Central was outhit 9-5, but did climb back in it with a two-run
Paige Dickel (junior, Norwalk) homer in the fourth, her third of the year. Central put two runners on in the sixth inning and loaded the bases in the seventh, but came up empty.
"Timely hits," Wares said. "We've talked about that all year. We got it to 4-2 and felt good. We're just trying to hang in there. Then in the bottom of the seventh, we have them loaded, but we just couldn't get the key base hit."
Wares lifted Olson in the third inning with thoughts of bringing her back in game two, although she returned in the seventh inning of the opener as well. She gave up four runs on five hits with three walks and three strikeouts. Olson did throw the first four frames of the nightcap, giving up two earned runs on five hits with four walks and two strikeouts. She suffered both losses, dropping to 11-4.
But
Mariah Fritz (sophomore, Tama, East Marshall HS), coming off her rockiest outing of the year, was solid in relief in both games. In a combined six innings, she held Luther scoreless, scattering five hits with a walk and five strikeouts. Both teams had six hits in the nightcap, but Central was charged with two errors.
"Mariah was good and that was big mentally for her," Wares said. "Actually, she was better than good. She proved she can compete against a team of this quality and that bodes well for moving forward."
Olson had two hits in the opener while first baseman
Abbie Voas (senior, Chanhassen, Minn.) had a pair of hits in the nightcap, including her ninth double of the season. Dickel and center fielder
Sara Tallman (freshman, Pella) each had two hits on the day.
"We continue to get good play from Tallman, I thought
Abbie Voas stepped up in the second game and had some quality at-bats and I thought
Paige Dickel responded well (coming off an injury)," Wares said. "There were lots of positives but it's just real hard to lose when you want to win the league and realize that's probably gone now.
"But everything else is still there. Now it's just a question of how well we can recover from this emotionally and get ourselves back."
That's not a simple task in the Iowa Conference, however. The Dutch journey to Dubuque for a league twinbill with Loras College Saturday at 1 p.m. The Duhawks are 21-9 overall and 5-5 in conference play after splitting a doubleheader at Simpson College Tuesday, winning 6-1 but falling 3-1. And Central, which split a pair at No. 11 Coe College Saturday, enters with a season-worst three-game losing streak.
"Loras has two pretty good pitchers," Wares warned. "We've been saying all year that the Iowa Conference is good.
"We probably have some players whose confidence is down, but we're facing quality pitching. We just have to find a way. We're going to keep working at it."
