Earlham Echo

July 9, 2024

With a starting lineup that consists of 5 seniors and 3 juniors, the Cardinals will have an experienced team taking the field in the post-season in 2024. And when July hits, that experience comes in handy. Playoff games are not the same as regular season games.

“They’re 100 percent different,” said Coach Caskey. “We have kids that really understand the game. And not just the game, but situations. They understand what this time of year is about. We’ve kind of talked about it—if we can make it to the regional final, we know anything can happen. But in the past, we’ve looked too much to that game and overlooked something along the way, and that gives us some trouble.”

The #11 ranked Cards earned the #2 seed in Region 3. They finished the season with 12 losses—the most of any of the top 15 Class 1A teams—but folks around the state understand how tough Earlham’s schedule is. The Cardinals have been dominant at times, but have been a bit inconsistent in all aspects of their game.

Offensively, the Cardinal lineup is scary. They have 6 hitters (Haley Glade, Lexi Voss, Reagan Ridout, Katie Janssen, Rowen Fisk, and Kenady Ridout) hitting .366 or above. Glade is 3^rd in 1A with 11 home runs and the team ranks 5^th with 20. Still, the bats have gone silent against a few of the top pitchers in the conference this year. Sooner or later, the Cards will need to beat an opposing ‘ace.’

“I think this year we’re trying to focus a little more on being more disciplined; laying off pitches you can’t do anything with,” said Coach Caskey. “It’s hard sometimes. The ball rises in the strike zone and above it. Against a quick enough pitcher, if you don’t make up your mind soon enough, you’re out of luck. Rise ball pitchers have caused us problems in the past, so we need to recognize when the pitch is above our hands and let it go. (In Underwood), we did a really good job of that. Both pitchers we saw, Treynor and Griswold, had a pretty good rise, and we were able to lay off that.”

Errors and misplays happen. They’re just part of the game. There have been some games this season, though, where the Cardinals have let mistakes compound, resulting in some disastrous innings. But like their offense, the defense is trending in the right direction late in the season.

“(In Underwood), our pitching was good, but we had some inconsistent moments,” said Coach Caskey. “The defense turned double play after double play, getting us out of innings, getting us out of tough situations. We dodged several bullets over the weekend. It was due to the defense playing like we know they can play. It’s contagious, like anything else. If somebody makes a play, then everybody makes plays.”

The team ERA is 4.08, which is uncharacteristically high for the historically pitching-rich Earlham program. Reagan, a senior lefty, leads the Cardinal pitchers with 15 wins in 21 starts and 124.1 innings pitched. Eighth grader Eden Forcht has developed into a solid #2, pitching 69.1 innings and winning 7 games. Jenna Yetter, also an 8^th-grader, has looked good in a handful of appearances this year. Hitting is a matter of making adjustments against the pitcher, so Coach Caskey is not ruling out using all three of his hurlers in the post season—perhaps multiple pitchers in the same game—to keep opposing offenses guessing.

“Our three pitchers that have pitched varsity, they all bring something different to the table,” he said.

There’s a long layoff between the last regular season game and the first round of the playoffs on Wednesday. Last week, Coach Caskey kept the team sharp with a live, 3-inning scrimmage with ‘even’ teams. Early this week, they prepared for their probable 1^st-round opponent, CAM. CAM and 2-win IKM-Manning were scheduled to play July 8 for the right to advance against the Cards in Earlham. After that, Coach Caskey is scouting possible opponents, but keeping the girls focused on nothing but the game at hand.

Should the Cards advance to the regional semifinal on July 12, they would host either Oakland Riverside (18-11) or #15 Woodbine (17-3), both quality teams. On the top half of the regional bracket is 5^th ranked Collins-Maxwell (24-3), who ousted the Cards from the playoffs last season, and a good Ankeny Christian (17-6) team. The regional final is on July 15, site TBD.