Earlham Echo

July 11, 2023

The Cardinals’ season came to an abrupt and disheartening end with a loss in the regional semifinal last Friday. As a team that won 31 games this year and was seeded #2 in the in the region, their sights were firmly set on earning another trip for the Earlham program to Fort Dodge for the state tournament. For this group of dedicated, softball-centric girls, this loss will sting for a while.

“Summer sports are different because it’s an absolute grind,” said Coach Caskey. “All your friends are at the swimming pool; they’re going out at night; they’re doing summer things. And you’re at the ballpark, or you’re at weights in the morning. When you put that much into it and you care that much, it hurts that much more when something like this happens.”

Cards vs. Lynnville-Sully, July 5

‘On paper,’ the Cards were heavy favorites in their opening round regional game against Lynnville-Sully. Between the lines, the Cardinals proved that those unscientific calculations were correct by dumping the Hawks, 12-2, at home on July 5.

The Cards got 9 hits in their four turns at bat and took advantage of 7 Hawk errors.

Earlham scored 4 runs in the 1^st inning. Lexi Voss walked and eventually scored on a wild pitch. Kenady Ridout doubled in two runners—Glade, who had singled; and Reagan Ridout, who had reached on an error. Kenady scored on a single by Karry Goff.

The Cards got 2 more runs in the 3^rd. With 1 out, Glade lined a ball over the left center field fence. Katie Janssen followed with a single, then advanced on a groundout, then a wild pitch. Kenady singled to make the score 6-0.

Earlham tallied a half dozen runs in the 4^th. Getting RBIs were Voss, with a double; Janssen, with a sacrifice fly; and Reagan, who hit a 2-run single.

Pitcher Avery Subbert limited the Hawks to 5 hits and struck out 8 batters. Kenady had 2 hits and 2 RBI. Glade also had 2 hits.

Cards vs. Collins-Maxwell, July 5

It would have been difficult for Collins-Maxwell’s Erica Hogue to have a better game than she did in the Spartans’ 7-0 win over the Cardinals in Earlham. She pitched a no-hitter, hit a home run, drove in two runs with a single, and walked twice. The junior’s pitching statistics proved to be no mirage. She has only allowed 6 earned runs all season—2^nd in Class 1A—and has stuck out 258 batters—which is 3^rd. She kept Cardinal batters off balance all night with her mix of fastballs, off speed pitches, rise, and drop balls, and foiled any strategy that Coach Caskey wanted to try.

“Part of me really wanted to bunt more than we did,” said the coach. “I’ve seen her pitch a couple different times, and she was just on tonight. And the ball was really spinning. When you try to bunt a ball that’s really spinning like that, it goes straight up in the air or you miss it. The few times we did try to bunt, it went straight up in the air. You need to get some base runners so you can get a couple more chances to see her. I think the more chances we see somebody, especially the good ones, the better we get.”

But the Cards only had two base runners all night. Lexi Voss reached via errors two different times—and those were the only two ground balls the Cards hit during the game. Of the 21 outs that Hogue and the Spartans recorded, 12 were strikeouts and 9 were harmless popups or fly balls.

Hogue hit a solo homer—her 7^th of the year—in the top of the 1^st inning. Cardinal pitcher Avery Subbert and the Cardinal defense did a good job of keeping Collins-Maxwell off the board after that, but the wheels fell off in the 6^th inning. With two infield hits and a walk, the Spartans loaded the bases with no outs. After a hit and error, the bases were cleared. Then, a ground ball out produced another run and the Cards were down, 5-0.

The Cards got into trouble again in the 7^th with some errors and misplays, and Hogue eventually delivered a 2-RBI single.

The Cardinals finished the year with a 31-14 record, more than doubling last season’s win total of 14.