Bears continue stellar season

MARENGO — Ava Gehrking’s three hits and Kennedy Axmear’s 10 strikeouts led the charge for the Bears in their 5-2 victory over Iowa Valley Friday night.

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Iowa Valley got off to a 2-0 to start in the first inning.

Lydia Kriegel led things off with a single and after a few errors the Tigers brought in two runs.

The Bears took a few innings to get the bats going and tied things up in the third.

Singles from Gehrking and Axmear started the two-out rally. Ada Mews put the ball in play and, after a fielding error, two runs scored for the Bears, tying the game at 2-2.

In the fourth, the Tigers got a base runner when a batter was hit by a pitch, but the runner was tagged out at second on an attempted stolen base after a nice throw from Bears catcher Taylor Mikesell.

In the fifth, the Bears added to their lead.

Gehrking started things with a double and was brought in off the bat of Axmear. Mews brought in another run to make it 4-2.

One more scored off a wild pitch.

In the bottom of the fifth, Lydia Kriegel hit a two-out double.

In three games this week, Kriegel went 9-10 at the plate which has boosted her already impressive batting average to .567.

“I feel more confident at the plate this season,” Kriegel said.

“A big reason for that has been my off-season training.”

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Being the leadoff has been an adjustment for Kriegel. “It was a little scary at first,” she said.

Kriegel has adjusted well.

Lydia has also held most of the pitching load for the Tigers this season.

“My team helps to put a lot of confidence in me when I’m on the mound,” Kriegel said.

“The pitcher-catcher combination of Lydia and Izzy (Kriegel) being together the last few years has also helped bring success,” Iowa Valley head coach Monica Miller said.

Kriegel had nine strikeouts of her own in the game Friday night.

Gehrking added another hit in the seventh for her third of the game and 22nd on the season.

“Tonight was a big confidence booster for me,” Gehrking said.

“I saw a lot of outside pitches and I connect on those better.”

The bat of Gehrking will be a key part of the Bears success as postseason play nears.

Axmear ended the game on the mound with back-to-back strikeouts, increasing her total to 147 on the season, which ranked 10th in Class 1A as of Friday night.

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“I was overall happy with the performance,” English Valleys head coach Steve Hester said.

“Lydia is a great pitcher making Iowa Valley always tough to play.”

English Valleys defeated the Tigers 5-4 in their previous meeting this season.

“We just need to clean up our first innings,” Hester added.

“We started to execute, and things loosened up for us after that.”

English Valleys advanced to 14-3 on the season and almost beat the fifth-ranked team in Class 1A (Sigourney) in a 3-2 loss Wednesday.

The Bears have overcome adversity in many of their victories this season but have remained resilient.

“We always keep our heads up and pick each other up,” Gehrking said.

“It’s a motto of family,” Hester said.

Iowa Valley fell to 8-10 on the season following Friday’s game.

“We just didn’t execute at the plate and a few base-running errors hurt us.” Miller said.

“Overall we played a solid game.”

ENGLISH VALLEYS AT IOWA VALLEY BASEBALL

Iowa Valley defeated English Valleys 15-1 to move to 11-6 on the season.

Nolan Kriegel pitched all five innings for the Tigers and also had four RBIs.

Cole Long had three RBIs as well.