Raiderettes go 2-1 to open season
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It was a busy week for the Raiderettes after the first two games of the season were postponed due to weather.
The Mount Ayr girls got their first contest in against Central Decatur on Friday, May 27, before hosting their Memorial Day Tournament on Monday where they faced Centerville and Wayne.
Mt. Ayr 12, CD 0
The Raiderettes opened the season with a 3-inning, 12-run victory over the Central Decatur Cardinals last Friday.
Addy Reynolds was in the circle for the Raiderettes, and in the three innings, Reynolds pitched 36 times, allowing one hit and striking out five batters.
The Cardinals kept the game close, giving up one run in the bottom of the first. Payten Lambert drew a walk to lead-off the bottom of the first, and the Cardinals collected two quick outs, but it was clean-up hitter, Zoey Larsen that knocked in the first run of the night.
The second inning was scoreless for both teams and it was the third that saw the downfall of the Cardinals.
The Cardinals had one runner on base, but she was left stranded in the third and the Raiderettes went back to the plate.
Larsen would end up driving in a pair of runs on a Rockhold pitch that was in the zone.
“I knew it wasn’t high and that’s our main focus today,” said Larsen. “I knew we had to move runners and just get up there and swing.”
Reynolds recorded one hit, two runs and one RBI in the victory and added what she saw coming from the Central Decatur circle.
“We know every time we see Rockhold she is going to throw rise balls or high fast balls so as long as we don’t chase she will give us what we want,” said Reynolds. “We were looking for that perfect knee-high pitch and it ended up working.”
The Mount Ayr bats had caught on to Cardinal pitcher, Kylee Rockhold’s rise ball and after giving up five runs, the Cardinals made the switch in the circle to bring in Annika Evertsen. The Raiderettes continued to pound away before the game was called due to the 12-run rule after three innings, giving the Raiderettes their first win of the season.
As a team the Raiderettes recorded 12 runs off nine hits, led by Tegan Streit, Larsen and Nickle, all with two hits.
Larsen led the team in RBI with three, while Streit recorded two.
In the field, the Raiderettes boasted a 1.00, recording no errors in the victory, while recording nine put outs on 12 total chances with three assists.
Coach Bret Ruggles was pleased with the effort put forth by his Raiderettes.
“It’s funny how things can start with a home run or like the bunt for us,” said coach Ruggles. “Our offense just ignited. I was scared to death of coming in her tonight because we’ve had so many days off. I loved our discipline tonight. We got a couple of big calls early, but we did a nice job of getting outs and if we can keep doing that we will be fine.”
Stats
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 F
CD 0 0 0 x x x x 0
MA 1 0 11 x x x 12
Hitting
AB H R BI
Lambert 2 1 2 0
Streit 3 2 2 2
Reynolds 3 1 2 1
Larsen 3 2 0 3
Vanderflught 0 0 1 0
H.Barnes 3 0 1 0
Nickle 2 2 1 0
Knight 0 0 0 0
L.Barnes 2 1 1 0
Ruggles 1 0 1 1
Henle 1 0 1 1
TOTALS 20 9 12 8
Pitching
IP H ER R K
Reynolds 3 1 0 0 5
TOTALS 3 1 0 0 5
Raiderette Tournament
The Raiders had a few days of rest before Memorial Day which saw their Softball Tournamnt moved from Independence Day to Memorial Day.
Three other teams came down for the tournament. The Centerville Big Reds, Interstate-35 and Wayne traveled to Mount Ayr to spend the day at the ball park.
Mt. Ayr 5, CBR 3
Mount Ayr and Centerville kicked things off at 9 a.m. where the Raiderettes took a 5-3 win to start off the day.
Mount Ayr took an early lead after Payten Lambert had a lead-off double. Streit had a sacrifice bunt that put Lambert onto third and Addy Reynolds had a sac fly to push Lambert across the plate.
The Raiderettes would take a 3-0 lead in the third, before the Big Red found their first run in the fourth.
The Raiderettes would tack on two more in the bottom of the fourth.
It was the sixth inning when Centerville started to close the gap and timely outs ended the inning and after hitting the time limit, the Raiderettes took the win to advance to the championship round.
In the win, the Raiderettes saw five runs on 10 hits and five RBI, led by Reynolds and Nickle, each with two.
The Mount Ayr girls committed three errors on the day, but saw 18 putouts on 28 total chances.
Reynolds allowed three runs on seven hits, while striking out seven.
Stats
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 F
CBR 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 3
MA 1 0 2 2 0 0 0 5
Hitting
AB H R BI
Lambert 3 2 2 0
Streit 3 1 1 0
Reynolds 3 2 1 2
Larsen 3 1 1 1
H.Barnes 2 0 0 0
Nickle 3 3 0 2
L.Barnes 3 1 0 0
Ruggles 3 0 0 0
Henle 3 0 0 0
TOTALS 26 10 5 5
Pitching
IP H ER R K
Reynolds 6 7 3 3 7
TOTALS 6 7 3 3 7
Interstate-35 and Wayne played game two in the afternoon and kept things interesting, as Wayne led the Roadrunners 3-0 for most of the game before the Roadrunners found two runs to make it a 3-2 contest until the top of the seventh.
The Lady Falcon bats found the fire they needed and added four runs before shutting down the Roadrunners to advance to the championship game against Mount Ayr.
In the consolation game, Centerville and Interstate-35 faced off in a game that saw the Roadrunners find their bats late, along with a pair of home runs, that saw the Roadrunners clip the Big Red for third place, putting Centerville in fourth.
Championship
Game
Wayne 12, Mt. Ayr 0
Mount Ayr and Wayne squared off in the championship game just after 2 p.m.
Both teams pitched their aces in their first game, so Zoey Larsen would take the circle for the Raiderettes and Emily Jones would take pitching duties for the Lady Falcons.
The title game was a tough outing for the Mount Ayr ladies that saw Halsie Barnes with the Raiderettes lone hit as Emily Jones struck out four batters and the defense behind her recorded nine putouts on 11 total chances and two assists.
The Raiderette fielders committed two errors, while recording eight putouts on 12 total chances and two assists.
“It was a positive day, not a very positive day, would have liked to have that win, but it was a positive day,” said coach Ruggles. “We got a lot of at-bats, some things learned, some good intel on them [Wayne]. The biggest thing for us is to move on. Get ready for tomorrow and move on.”
Stats
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 F
MA 0 0 0 x x x x 0
WAY 5 2 5 x x x x 12
Hitting
AB H R BI
Lambert 2 0 0 0
Streit 1 0 0 0
Reynolds 1 0 0 0
Larsen 1 0 0 0
H.Barnes 1 1 0 0
Nickle 1 0 0 0
L.Barnes 1 0 0 0
Ruggles 1 0 0 0
Henle 1 1 0 0
TOTALS 10 1 0 0
Pitching
IP H ER R K
Larsen 3 8 9 12 2
TOTALS 3 8 9 12 2
