The North Butler softball team won the Belmond-Klemme Invite title with a 2-0 day, AGWSR went 1-1, Belmond-Klemme went 1-1 and Hampton-Dumont-CAL went 0-2 on Saturday. To open the day, AGWSR won 9-8 over B-K and North Butler won 12-3 over H-D-CAL in six innings. In the consolation matchup, B-K won 8-3 over H-D-CAL. In the tournament title game, North Butler won 5-3 over AGWSR.
North Butler Head Coach Austin Guerrero on the value of tournament play and beating the heat.
“Facing quality ball clubs that are going to be a lot like games, that you’re going to play when it comes to postseason. That’s what we’re excited to do is get opportunities to put our best foot forward and play as close as you can to postseason. Even with the heat, I thought these were some of our better games this season for energy. It’s hard to have energy when you are a little worn out from the sun, but proud of our girls for doing that,” says Guerrero. “We’re taking care of our bodies. We talked about it even before we came to this day. We looked ahead, saw the weather and we’re like, you got to start preparing for that Wednesday, Thursday, Friday night. Then you get ahead of it instead of getting behind it.”
Zoey Thompson and Kamri Groen each had three RBIs, Mackenzie Schultz and Marcy Allan each had two RBIs on the day to lead the Bearcats. In the circle, Groen had six strikeouts, and one earned run against H-D-CAL. Thompson had two strikeouts and allowed two earned runs in a win against AGWSR.
AGWSR Head Coach Brock Holmgaard on what has helped the Cougars find their stride.
“Right now our pitching is doing a great job of making sure we’re not giving up a ton of free bases and on top of that our bats are hot, we’re hitting the ball hard. We might not always get a base hit but we’re always hitting the ball hard at people, so you force them to make the play. That’s helped us a ton,” says Holmgaard.” Not giving up the free bases, which can get you in trouble fast has really been a positive this year. With the hard hitting and the good pitching, we’re just a tough out right now for anybody.”
Kaitlynn Draeger and Brylea Metzgar each had four RBIs to lead the Cougars at the plate. In the circle, Metzgar had five strikeouts and allowed seven earned runs between win against Belmond-Klemme and loss to North Butler.
B-K’s Kaylen Morris had four RBIs and Nevi McMurray had two RBIs to lead the team. Morris, in the circle, had four strikeouts and allowed four earned runs against AGWSR and six strikeouts and did not allow an earned run against H-D-CAL.
H-D-CAL was led by Addy Aalbers and Megan Severs, who each went 3-6 on the day at the plate. Kendall Eilderts in the circle, had two strikeouts and allowed six earned runs against B-K and four strikeouts with two earned runs against North Butler.
North Butler (10-8) will host Northwood-Kensett and Saint Ansgar on Monday. AGWSR (7-14) will host Grundy Center for a doubleheader on Monday. B-K (12-3) will host Garner-Hayfield-Ventura for a doubleheader on Monday. H-D-CAL (4-8) will play at #7 (1A) Saint Edmond on Monday.
