Muskies play sloppy in victory, tough in loss

Font Size:
Default font size
Larger font size

DAVENPORT, Iowa — Muscatine’s softball team won one and lost one in eight innings at the Davenport West Invitational held Friday.

The Muskies’ errors allowed Mid-Prairie to rally in order to force the extra inning only to allow Muscatine to get the winning run in the eighth, 10-9. Muscatine then went scoreless through seven with top-ranked West Des Moines Valley in eventually losing 4-2, in eight innings.

“I didn’t feel good about the Mid-Prairie win,” Muscatine coach Dennis Schuur said. “We had eight errors and we let them get back in it and ahead for awhile there.”

Half of the Muskies’ errors against the Golden Hawks came in their five-run sixth inning in which they took a 7-6 lead. Three errors at shortstop and one at first base led to the big Mid-Prairie inning. Three of the four errors came after two outs.

Muscatine answered with three runs in the bottom of the sixth to make it 9-7.

Laura Ewalt led off with a single, and after Chelsea Winegard was tagged out on a sacrifice and Erika Wagner reached on a fielder’s choice with Ewalt being thrown out at second, Gaunt forced the Mid-Prairie shortstop into an error. Megan Butler singled to drive in two and Kassy Middagh doubled to score another.

Mid-Prairie, however, tied the score in the top of the seventh behind two more Muscatine errors. One of the two runs was unearned.

In the bottom half of the seventh, Muscatine was unable to plate a run, forcing the game into extra innings.

Under the international tie-break rule, with a runner on second base to start the eighth, Muscatine left Mid-Prairie’s Kelsey Fuhr stranded on third base.

Muscatine got the winning run as Winegard, who was on second to start the eighth, went to third on a sacrifice bunt by Wagner and Gaunt’s hit to right was misplayed to score Winegard.

“Our pitching was very good,” Schuur said. “Some of the hits they had, we made mental mistakes in tracking them down.”

Muscatine had the tying run on base against top-ranked Valley, but Laura Ewalt hit into a fielder’s choice to end the game.

“I was pleased with how we played against Valley,” Schuur said. “We had our chances to win and we had a lot better focus.”

The Tigers out-hit the Muskies 10-3, but Muscatine’s defense kept Valley from scoring. Four times throughout the first seven innings the Tigers had a runner on second with less than two outs and failed to score.

Under the international tiebreak in the eighth, Valley had two straight hits, a sacrifice bunt and sacrifice fly before an error at shortstop scored the final Tigers’ run. Valley had two more hits, but the final out was recorded as Christina Redd was tagged off the base at second after her double.

“We showed we can play with anybody in the state if we play with focus,” Schuur said. “It is just unfortunate we didn’t get the key hit when we needed to.”

Muscatine 10, Mid-Prairie 9

Mid-Prairie    100 015 20 –   9 11 2

Muscatine    202 203 01 – 10 15 8

Jordan Duwa and Melissa Hershberger; Kassy Middagh, Kayla Gaunt (7) and Nichole Ganzer. W – Gaunt. L – Duwa. Hits (two or more) – MP (Hershberger, Kelsey Fuhr, Kelsi Berg, Molly Miller); Mus (Erika Wagner 3, Gaunt, Megan Butler 3, Middagh). 2B – MP (Berg, Rachel Miller); Mus (Gaunt, Butler, Middagh 2). 3B – MP (Miller). RBI – MP (Hershberger, Berg, Miller 2); Mus (Wagner, Butler 4, Middagh 3).

West Des Moines Valley 4, Muscatine 2

8 innings

WDM Valley    000 000 04 – 4 10 3

Muscatine    000 000 02 – 2   3 1

Victoria Whitaker and Hailey Jensen; Kayla Gaunt and Nichole Ganzer. W – Whitaker. L – Gaunt. Hits (two or more) – Valley (Johnnie Dowling, Christina Redd 4). 2B – Valley (Redd); Mus (Kassy Middagh). RBI – Valley (Katelyn Baker, Maren Idso); Mus (Middagh).

Record – Muscatine 5-7.

Next game – Muscatine at Davenport West tourney, 2:30 (Lisbon); 4:15 (West Branch).

Print Email Share

Sponsored Links