Trojans have strong showing in Iowa City West tournament

IOWA CITY ? In a tournament that has normally caused the Fairfield softball team headaches over the years, the Trojans reversed their fortunate by winning three of four games at the Iowa City West Open Friday and Saturday.

      The Trojans (6-2) pulled out a pair of close wins, highlighted by a 6-4 defeat of No. 4 (4A) Bettendorf Saturday, and edged Cedar Falls 2-1 Friday. Fairfield fell to Iowa City West 11-1 in the opener Friday, but finished the tournament on a high note with an 8-2 victory over Iowa Valley.

      Three of the four games featured excellent defense, timely hitting and strong pitching. Errors in the late innings against Iowa City West led to a blowout.

      "Looking at it objectively, anyone probably would have figured we'd have been favored in one of the four games," Fairfield coach Bob Bradfield said. "We would have liked to have been 4-0, but three wins is a great tournament for us. The middle two games were our best ones. We were comparable to Iowa City West, but the final score wasn't indicative of the teams."

      Jessica Delker and Ashley Greenig each picked up a big win in the early part of the season. Delker shut down Cedar Falls, which defeated No. 4 (2A) Mid-Prairie and No. 12 (1A) HLV in the tournament. Delker fanned 10 and walked three in five innings, and the run was unearned.

      "Delker threw the best game of her career in that one," Bradfield said. "Cedar Falls was a decent team. She started to get a little tired at the end of the game."

      After scoring two runs in the first inning on Greenig's RBI single scoring Jennifer McLarney, and Greenig later coming around on an error, the Trojans had to hang on in the fifth. Cedar Falls loaded the bases with two out, having already scored one run. But Delker struck out the last hitter to pick up the win.

      Greenig was solid against Bettendorf, which didn't start top pitcher Lori Pankratz. Fairfield took a 6-1 lead in the contest, as Delker, Mallori Ghent and McLarney hit run-scoring singles in the third, and Shawna Diehl and Greenig ripped RBI singles in the fifth. Pankratz pitched the final 1 1/3 innings. Greenig fanned three and walked one over seven innings.

For a complete story, read the June 5 Fairfield Ledger.