PELLA—Amid a 19-3 start, almost as encouraging to coach George Wares as what his Central College softball team does well is how his squad is overcoming the things it doesn't.
           
The 19th-ranked Dutch committed five errors and found themselves trailing by three runs in the fifth inning but still emerged with a 6-5 win over the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Saturday after breezing to an 8-2 victory in the opener. Central extended its win streak to seven games in wrapping up its pre-American Rivers schedule.
           
"When some of your better players have a bad stretch and you can still win—and  you can come back with four runs after giving up four—that's pretty tough to do," Wares said.
           
Clinging to a 2-1 lead entering the fifth inning of the nightcap, the Dutch surrendered four runs—three of which were unearned—and trailed 5-2, only to answer with four runs in the bottom of the fifth. Left fielder Megan Doty (senior, Grinnell) lined a clutch two-run double to tie the game. Then, with a 0-2 count on designated player Mariah Parton (freshman, Ankeny), Wares re-inserted Emma Lenox (sophomore, Fremont, Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont HS), who promptly singled home the lead run.
           
"That's a big hit for her," Wares said. "Emma had a couple of big hits today."
           
Freshman Emma Beck (Holland, Grundy Center HS) improved to 4-0 by limiting Wis.-Eau Claire (9-9) to one earned run—four overall--on six hits with three walks and eight strikeouts in 5.0 innings.
           
Beck again had some bumpy moments but Wares continues to see a lot to like.
           
"She can be so good," Wares said. "She's blowing it by them but then she just loses command. But she'll figure it out."
           
Morgan Schaben (senior, Portsmouth, Harlan HS) allowed a hit in an inning of scoreless relief and game one winner Sydni Huisman (senior, Treynor) recorded her first save by throwing a scoreless seventh inning. She allowed a bloop infield hit and struck out one.
           
Doty had two of Central's five hits.
           
Huisman (11-1) had a 4-0 lead in the fourth inning of the opener before giving up two runs. She allowed four hits while walking two and fanning four over four innings.
           
"She just lost her command," Wares said. "But on the flip side of that was coming back in to close (the second game). That was big. That's twice in a row where she did something well which she hasn't always done well in her career and that's coming out of a game and then coming back in."
           
Schaben allowed just one hit in three innings of scoreless relief for her third save.
           
"This is what we want from Morgan," said Wares, who loves the contrast in styles she brings in relief of Huisman or Beck.
           
Second baseman Haley Bach (sophomore, Council Bluffs, Lewis Central HS) and center fielder Emma Johnson (senior, Davenport, Assumption HS) were both 4-for-4 in the game. Bach scored three runs and Johnson scored twice. Third baseman Franie Burnett (junior, Ankeny, Centennial HS), who follows them in the batting order, had four RBIs in the game and six for the day.
           
"I like our top two (Bach and Johnson)," Wares said. "It's not very often that Franie and (first baseman) Megan Stuhr (junior, Sigourney) are coming up without runners on. They're getting a lot of opportunities to knock people in."
           
The Dutch begin the American Rivers four-week whirlwind Friday with a 2 p.m. doubleheader at Waverly against Wartburg College. The Knights were defeated at Illinois Wesleyan 7-2 in what was a scheduled doubleheader Saturday to drop to 8-10.
           
"We're 19-3 and yet we know we're going into a really, really good conference that's going to have a lot of battles," Wares said. "But there are still a whole lot of things we can do better."