Tigers tamed by Hawks

SULLY - New London can play with any other softball team on a given night and proved that with two postseason victories over teams that had been ranked during the season. Those wins were over Winfield-Mt-Union 5-1 and North Mahaska 3-2. Any given night was not Monday against Lynnville-Sully.

Maybe it was the Hawks experience of having reached the Class 1A state tournament last season, but Lynnville-Sully performed under pressure Monday in a regional final to defeat New London, 5-0.

New London saw the final game of seniors Kara Krieger, Laney Loyd and Alexa Wenger.

'They are really the heart and soul of this team,” New London head coach Mark Chiri said. 'They were what made us this year.”

They were also the concern for the Hawks coming into the game.

'We knew New London had very good batters, three in particular, that we had to contain and keep off the bases,” Lynnville-Sully head coach Stacey Alberts said. 'We have consistent and fundamentally sound athletes that make a strong lineup with state tournament experience.”

L-S had just played a 12-inning game with South Iowa Cedar League rival Sigourney that went 12 innings before the Hawks came away with a 15-14 win.

'The biggest thing that worried me about New London was the difference in speed in the pitching from our last game,” said Alberts, who was the Iowa Girls Coaches Association's 2019 1A South Central District Coach of the Year and the SICL coach of the year.

. 'Our conversation before the game was to wait on good pitches. It was important that we were patient.”

That pregame worry paid off for the Hawks as their leadoff batter singled up the middle, was sacrificed to second and scored on another single.

'That broke the ice for us,” Alberts said. It was all the Hawks would need although they added two runs in the third and two in the sixth.

New London got a single from their second batter of the game, Ellie Manning, but a double play ended the threat. Sophie Rieghard singled with two out in the second inning, but a strikeout left her stranded.

The Tigers went down in order the next three innings. What looked to be a successful bunt by Reighard with an out in the fifth inning, was negated when the umpire ruled her out for stepping on home plate.

The Tigers' Claire Jones was hit by a pitch with one out in the sixth inning and Laney Loyd singled, then Manning bunted and the umpire ruled her the first out of the inning on the same call.

'In my 30 years, I don't know that I've ever had a player called out for stepping on the plate on a bunt and then we get two of them,” Chiri said. 'There's no arguing it because he's right on top of it. It's just weird to have it happen in a game at this level. Those two calls are pretty freaky.”

Possibly having the bases loaded with an out to two outs and two on was disappointing but the Tigers again tried to start a rally with a leadoff single in the seventh inning by Ashlyn McSorley, but a double play erased the threat.

'Our defense has been solid,” Stevens said. 'It helped us that will we knew the work it takes to get to state.”

'We made mental mistakes you can't afford,” Chiri said. You can't give them four outs when you want to get two. We were playing with fire and we just got burned.”

'What I'm really excited about is that we got to play a season at all,” Alberts said. 'It's great that we get to go to state but the fact is that the play this season means everybody got to play.”