Highland sails past Columbus

RIVERSIDE - Blue ribbons on shoes and the letters TM on the upper arm were displayed by the Highland High School softball team Tuesday in its SEISC North Division game with Columbus. They were in tribute to Tim Milder, the Columbus coach who died while working on the Columbus High School softball field in March.

'It was my idea to do that,” Highland coach Carrie Wieland said. 'I think he coached almost 10 years and I've been here 16 so we became very good friends. We had a lot of respect for each other. It has been a great community and they have been great to me. It was a very good man.”

The Huskies scored in every inning, eventually ending the game in the bottom of the fourth inning when the 12th run scored. Columbus threatened in the first two innings but were shut out by Megan Hoenig, who struck out six without a walk and gave up two hits.

Jobie Lekwa reached on a dropped third strike and Wildcat teammate Grace Conwell singled in the first inning. A fielder's choice and a stolen base put runners at second and third, but Hoenig's third strikeout of the inning ended the threat.

Highland answered with three runs in the bottom of the first, two on a single by Jenna Sands.

Aubrey Duncan had a one-out single in the second inning for Columbus and eventually reached third, but Highland shortstop Aly Stokes made two plays to end the inning.

Highland put three more up in the bottom of the second, one on an error, one on a scorching double by Abbie Miller and one on a sacrifice by Ellie Anderson.

Hoenig set Columbus down in order in the tgird and fourth innings.

Two Highland runs scored on wild pitches in the third and Anderson had another run-scoring sacrifice for a 10-0 lead.

Columbus allowed a highland runner to reach on a dropped third strike in the fourth innin, but with two outs, Miller, Sarah Schneider and Anderson hit three consecutive singles to end the game.

Anderson, who was 1 for 2, finished with three RBI as did Miller, who went 3 for 4.

'I was able to hit well because I was feeding off of my teammates,” Miller said. 'When they hit well it helps me get going. I see them get base hits, so I want to get base hits. We have been doing a lot of hitting in practice.”

It was a good win for the Huskies after falling to Winfield-Mt. Union the previous night.

'The main thing today was to rebound from our loss last night,” Miller said. 'I don't think we played very well and we did a lot better today. Winfield's pitcher has a nasty rice ball and we did not hit her very well. We should've done better. Next time we play them we need to lay off her rise ball and sharpen up our defense. It helps to win this game to get our rhythm back and get us playing like we normally do.”

'I would not say this was an easy game,” Wieland said. 'I will say we need we needed this game. We need to get some hits. We needed to make better choices. We need to play better in the field. It was definitely a better game than last night but we should not have taken that loss. We look forward to playing Winfield again and it will be on our home field.”

Emma Milder, who is Tim Milder's daughter, pitched the first two innings for Columbus with two strikouts. Libby White pitched the last two innings, also with two strikeouts.

'This has been hard on her,” said Columbus coach Katie Coil, who was Milder's assistant for four years. 'I did not know if she would go out this season because of him not being here, but she has shown up every day and showed that she wants to be here and play for him. I am kind of hoping that the other girls start to follow suit and put forth the effort that Emma is putting forth. She put so much energy into the way she plays the game.”

Highland had a moment of silence before the game to honor Milder.

'It does bring up emotion,” Coil said. 'It is super thoughtful. Everywhere we have played they have done something like that. I thought it was really nice that they did that for our coach that passed away. We have gotten a lot of support from some of the other teams in the conference so far.”

While the Wildcats appreciate the support, it creates emotion. A teammate could be seen hugging Milder during the national anthem.

'It is very respectful and very much appreciated, but sometimes it kind of sets the tone for the game to the girls that there is a piece missing that they want here,” Coil said. 'So sometimes, it can be a good thing and sometimes it can have adverse effects. It is hard to come back from that. We just have to try and fight through the emotion and the pain of him being gone. We have to show him that we can still compete as a team.”

'Columbus is struggling,” Wieland said. 'The kids have new coaches and they lost somebody that they cared a lot about.”

The Wildcats are 1-6, 1-2 in the North and host Iowa Mennonite Thursday.

Highland is 4-2 all North games.

'If we want to achieve our goal of winning the conference, we need to win out the rest of our conference games and just keep performing to the best of our ability,” Miller said. 'Coach always says we are aiming for state. I think it is a good thing to aim for because, of course, everybody wants to play at state. I think a strong performance in the postseason would get us there.”

Highland plays at Cardinal today.