Van Buren County loses softball game to No. 4 WBND

KEOSAUQUA — It was a game Van Buren County needed if it was to have a chance at the Southeast Iowa Super Conference South Division softball title.

It was a game that shaped up as a pitching duel with West Burlington-Notre Dame’s Lauren Summers’ 0.99 earned run average and 155 strikeouts in 102 innings pitched for the Falcons and Chelsey Huff’s 1.42 ERA and 102 Ks in 69 innings.

It was a game that lived up to the billing with Class 3A’s fourth-ranked WB/ND taking a 4-1 win over the 2A Warriors. Summers had five Ks and no walks, with seven hits while Huff had six strikeouts, five hits allowed and a walk.

Two of the five hits were back-to-back home runs by sisters Logan and Lyndsey Kelley to lead off the top of the sixth inning, the last scores of the game.

“That’s great that they kept it in the family,” Huff remarked, not wholeheartedly. “My sister is only in seventh grade.”

One home run hit the scoreboard hard enough that there might be a dent in it, “and one in a truck and one in a car,” Huff said. “The third, fourth, and fifth batters on that team have all done very good this year.”

The sisters and Summers have combined for 68 RBIs and 15 home runs.

“I had to start focusing on keeping the ball low so that they would hit grounders instead of taking the high road out of the park,” Huff said. “My rise ball was not working, it was floating.”

She said the home runs were outside fastballs, like the one she hit. “I like to get RBIs,” Huff said of her No. 3 spot in the order. “I just wish I would have more.” She has 23.

“Those sisters like to compete with each other,” WB/ND coach David Oleson said. “Huff is a very impressive pitcher and we just happened to get a hold of a couple.”

“Those home runs were tough on us, but I think we were the better team at the plate,” Van Buren County coach Randy Smith said. “I told my team we just couldn’t get our hits at the right time. I need to find the right batting order for the girls before the postseason.”

The Warriors outhit Falcons 7-5. The Warriors hitting may have been better prepared for Summers because of a practice session. “We had one of our coaches pitch to us and he threw them in there pretty hard,” Huff said. “We went to the batting cages and hit some more after that.”

Huff got a hold of one of Summers’ pitches, planting it on the other side of the fence. Huff was the third VBC batter in the bottom of the first inning and cranked the second pitch she saw over the fence. The blast gave her sole possession of the career home run record at VBC, but that was not on her mind. “At bat, I was upset because my walk led to their run, so I really just wanted to make contact. My goal was to get on base and let the girls after me get us going, but it didn’t happen like that.”

Summers helped her cause with a two-outs liner to the fence that drove in a run in the third inning and made the score 2-1.

VBC third baseman Isabelle Manning snagged a line shot out of the dirt to end the threat, then singled in the bottom of the third. Huff poked a two-outs single to put two on, but a pop out ended the inning.

WBND put two on base with two out in the fifth, then Huff struck out Summers. VBC answered the sisters’ home runs with Annabell Cormier and Ivy Davidson knocking out singles in the bottom of the sixth but left them stranded.

“To beat Fairfield and Clear Creek, I think that Van Buren County should be ranked, and because of how they played us,” Oleson said. “They have improved since (May 27’s 7-4 WBND win).”

“We are definitely getting better,” Smith said. “This was a good game, against a really good ball team with good defense and they hit the crap out of the ball.”

The Warriors are 14-3 overall, 3-2 South while the Falcons are 19-1, 7-0.