Ruggles leads Raiderettes into 50th season
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Spring sports slowed down considerably with the ending of the track season Saturday, May 22 which gave way to the summer season to get underway, which it did Tuesday night in Mount Ayr as the Raiderettes put up the track spikes for their softball cleats.
Bret Ruggles and company placed second in the Pride of Iowa last season with a record of 10-4 and participated in the State Tournament in Fort Dodge. Assisting coach Ruggles again this year is Carley Carrall and Ryan Reynolds.
The Raiderettes enter the season ranked sixth in Class 2A.
Major losses from graduation were short stop Sam Stewart and catcher Abigail Barnes.
Also notably missing from the roster this season is junior Maddie Stewart and senior Rachel Sobotka.
Stewart had the second most runs and saw a batting average of .333 and on base percentage of .400. Stewart also had a fielding percentage of .905.
Sobotka scored 11 runs and had a batting average of .311 and on base percentage of .380 and had a fielding percentage of .833.
“We have some major holes to clean up, but we have a very eager sophomore class and some young ones who want to do the job,” said coach Bret Ruggles. “They have been dying to get on this field under the lights, so it will be a great opportunity for them to compete for those jobs. We look forward to those competitions as well as our team chemistry smooths out.”
New to the team includes catcher Breya Nickle, catcher Hayden Ruggles, outfielder Tegan Streit, outfielder Tabby Henle and infielder Jaxy Knight.
The Raiderettes are returning a handful of experienced athletes as well in Alexa Anderson who was 1st team All-Confernce and a letterwinner, Addy Reynolds who was second-team All-Conference and a letterwinner, Channler Henle who was a letterwinner and second-team All-Conference as well as Payten Lambert and Halsie Barnes who return as letterwinners and honorable mention All-Conference players.
While not a senior heavy team this season, the Raiderettes will rely on their experience, along with those of the juniors, to help guide the eight eighth graders and three freshman.
The seniors are Alexa Anderson who has committed to play softball at the collegiate level in Pella at Central College next season, Channler Henle and MaKayla Jones.
Juniors coming back to the team are Halsie Barnes, Payten Lambert, Addy Reynolds and DeAnn Wyant.
The sophomore class has come out in droves, with 11 joining the team including Linsie Barnes, Alexis Greenland, Tabby Henle, MaKenna Jones, Zoey Larsen, Kianna Paxson, Kaylie Shields, Tegan Streit, Josie Vanderflught, Mallory Weehler and Kalee Wise.
Jana Irving, Hayden Ruggles and Mya Sackett make up the freshman class, while Ally Anderson, Aubree Clark, Kyleigh Conklin, Koda Henle, Olivia Huntington, Jaxy Knight, Breya Nickle and Aubrey Reed make up the slew of eighth graders joining the team this season.
“This is the most balanced I have seen the POI for a very long time,” said coach Ruggles. “There are about eight teams that could legitimately win this conference and I could easily see us in that mix as well. It will be a tough schedule, lots of tough games, but most importantly a lot of fun seeing Mount Ayr softball be apart of this race.”
This is also the 50th year of Raiderette softball. Ruggles and the Raiderettes are looking forward to celebrating with past players and teams later this summer.
