Hurler Hoenig helps Huskies

COLUMBUS JUNCTION - A pitcher's work is never done.

Highland High School softball pitcher Magan Hoenig spends time in the offseason working with a pitching coach. During the game when she is not batting, she will keep her arm loose throwing. During the season, she is a target of batted balls, taking a shot to the shin during her nine-strikeout, no-walk, four-hit, seven-inning 11-0 Southeast Iowa Super Conference North Division victory Friday at Columbus. Saturday, she shut out Alburnett at Alburnett with eight strikeouts, no walks and just two hits allowed in a 10-0 six-inning win.

'I never keep track of strikeouts or walks during a game,” Hoenig said after Friday's win. 'I just focus on the batter and work one pitch at a time. I just want to get the girl out that is at bat.”

The Huskies also lost at Alburnett Saturday, 7-4, to Bondurant-Farrar. Freshman Grace Batcheller took the loss. Dani Laughlin and Abbie Miller had the only hits.

Against Alburnett, Abbi Stransky and Jenna Sands each hit a double while Miller and Laughlin both went 3 for 4.

Against Columbus, Emily Yahnke was 4 for 4 with a triple, Stransky and Miller had two hits apiece and Laughlin was a dervish on the base paths, scoring all four times that she reached with aggresive baserunning.

'This was a good way to start the end of the trail,” Highland head coach Carrie Wieland said of her 15-8 team that has two regular season games left before facing Van Buren July 10 in a Class 2A Region 8 postseason quarterfinal. 'I think we're ready to score some runs by running hard on the bases. We have talked about being more aggressive. We have practiced it even more than we normally do.”

Laughlin had a stolen base, went from first to third on throwing errors twice and showed fearless aggresiveness for an eighth-grader.

'If it's open, we take it then we just keep going and going,” Wieland said. 'That makes people really nervous. Dani is very aggressive. She's very fast. She's a great defensive player. I had her batting ninth and moved her up to one. It has been paying off. She resembles another centerfielder that I had, Kelsey Hora, who is playing at Coe now.”

Coaches are often lauded for their personnel moves or strategic moves or game decisions, but it still takes the player to execute for those moves to be successful. Laughlin was recently moved from the number nine spot to leadoff in the batting order and Laughlin has made her coach look like a genius with a .456 team-leading batting average.

'I want them to understand that I can't call everything, so if it's something that they saw, they go instead of me having to send them,” Wieland said. 'They are kind of learning to read things on their own and take the extra base.”

Hoenig deflected that batted ball off of her leg right to the first baseman for the second out of the last inning.

”I think it bounced to first base because of how hard they hit the ball,” Hoenig said. 'I don't think I had anything to do with it. My curveball was really working because I was getting them to chase it and then my changeup really got them. I can hear my teammates yelling for me, so that really helps. That helps calm down my nerves.”

Emma Milder started the game for Columbus with a double. Quinn Scarff tried to stretch a single into a double in the fourth inning and a Libby White lead-off single in the fifth was followed by a two-out single by Aubrey Duncan.

'I am kind of flustered with what's going on about our hitting,” Columbus coach Katie Coil said. 'It's odd because in the middle of the season, we had really picked up our bats and were on fire at the plate. Now it has kind of dropped off. That tells me that we need more reps and I need to do some different drills with them.”

Milder gave up nine hits and two walks. Only seven runs were earned.

'Emma did really good in the circle but our defense just wasn't there behind her,” Coil said. 'Routine balls were getting dropped in the outfield. That that will kill you.”

Columbus has a date with Class 3A's No.1 Davenport Assumption looming for its start to the postseason July 10.

'We are still a really young team,” Coil said. 'We are only graduating two and then there's only one junior. The future looks extremely promising. We just have to stay together and keep working towards a common goal.”