The Grundy Center softball team took a step forward, posting its first winning record since 2022. In doing so, they won the NICL-West championship for the first time in several decades.
“We always have a goal of winning the conference, and it was our first outright championship since 1989, which is way too long but we’re glad to break that streak,” Head Coach Andy Lebo says. “And then being over .500 and really being in a good position come tournament time, we were excited with how the year went.”
They went 8-1 in conference play, and the 2-1 record against state tournament qualifier East Marshall was the difference between first and second.
Lebo says some key factors included reducing the number of errors and walks issued by the pitching staff.
“We challenged them to come out and play good defense and throw strikes, and we did that for the majority of the year. We play a lot of games in a short amount of time, but being a younger team, I thought our girls really handled that well. We just challenged them to go out and make the other team beat us, and not put ourselves in a situation like we a few years ago where we walked a lot of kids.”
The staff, composed primarily of sophomore Maddy Hendershot and Macey Kiewiet, posted a team ERA of 2.92.
They went 17-11 and were eliminated in a regional quarterfinal at Alburnett.
Andy Lebo interview:
