H-D-CAL and CGD to face in first Softball meeting of 2023
The Hampton-Dumont-CAL and Clarion-Goldfield-Dows Softball teams are set to play Wednesday night.
The Bulldogs are off to a 1-3 start after falling to AGWSR 7-6 in extra innings Tuesday night. H-D-CAL’s lone win came last Thursday against Nashua-Plainfield, as junior catcher Aspen Harlan’s three-run homer helped end the Huskies night after five innings, by a 12-2 final. Hampton-Dumont-CAL Head Softball Coach Kelsey Enslin says that Harlan is a staple of the program.
“She’s a junior but has been around since her eighth grade year. Just having that reliability behind home plate has been huge for us. She hit the first night in the two spot then we moved her down to the three spot and that’s probably kinda gonna be her home. Just having her, who has had experience kind of understands the process of things [is great]. We actually have a lot of very new kids in new positions…. I know she will do her job, I know she’ll step up.”
Clarion-Goldfield-Dows will enter the game 1-3 following a postponement with South Hamilton. Senior Clarissa Hasty is off to a nice statistical start for the Cowgirls, leading the team with six runs, six hits, and a .429 batting average. A 7-1 loss to Iowa Falls-Alden on Friday is CGD’s most recent final.
Coach Enslin says that she will be relying on her Bulldogs athleticism, as well as sophomore pitcher Malie Ott going forward.
“Looking forward, our plan is also just making sure we have understanding, executing what we need to do, and we’re gonna continue kinda something new we have not as much in the past. We have quite a bit of speed actually in our lineup. So, hopefully playing that bunt game that scored enough runs against North Butler Tuesday we’ll definitely look at that. Malie is our varsity pitcher so she didn’t get a ton of time last year [because] she had hurt her shoulder… I think just moving forward, we’re looking to just kind of grow and mature as a team to see exactly what we’re gonna be about.”
The Bulldogs and Cowgirls get underway from CGD at 6:00 p.m.
