Bobcat softball bounced by Boone
The Marshalltown softball team got a bit of a break from its grueling CIML Iowa Conference schedule on Friday when it hosted Boone for a cross-class showdown.
The Toreadors took a 2-0 lead in the first inning and extended that to 5-0 after the top of the third, but the Bobcats responded well with three runs in the bottom to head to the fourth down 5-3.
MHS had a couple more opportunities to cut further into the lead but couldn’t quite take advantage, and Boone added some insurance runs in the fifth and seventh to stave off any Bobcat comeback and walk away with an 8-4 victory.
Marshalltown head coach Jim Palmer said pitcher McKaylee Dawson, who threw the complete game for the Bobcats, had a great night on the mound despite letting a few runs get away from her.
“I am very proud of McKaylee Dawson, she really stayed focused tonight. I was a little worried going into that fifth inning and we talked about that for her coming out in the sixth inning but she did a great job,” Palmer said. “Seventh inning she came right out and got the two outs, but then we let a few things happen and hits happen but that’s part of it.”
Dawson finished the night allowing 14 hits and seven earned runs while striking out five. It was just a few innings that got to her too, as the Toreadors (8-12) had two hits in the first inning to plate two runs, three in the third to plate three runs, and five in the fifth that brought in two more scores.
Bobcats catcher Erica Johnson had her first pick-off throw of the season, gunning down Boone’s Emma Dighton when she tried to steal second base in the second inning.
“Erica does a great job back there behind as catcher, she finally got that goose egg off her back and had a great throwout there at second,” Palmer said.
Johnson also had a two-run single in the third that scored McKenna Major and Madi Finch, a hit that came immediately following a Finch one-run single that scored Regan Mazour.
Mazour and Alyvia Chadderdon had a double and a single respectively earlier in the third inning, and Palmers said his Bobcats (1-16) are finally starting to string together hits.
“I always tell the girls to play good you have to feel good, and when those hits start happening and you start walking, then someone else comes in with a hit and you score an RBI, it’s very contagious,” Palmer said. “If we can learn to be contagious early in the game we will have a lot more success on the offensive side.”
Mazour and Finch were both effective at the plate, with Mazour finishing 2-for-3 with a walk and two runs and Finch coming in with a 3-for-4 line with two RBIs, both of which brought Mazour home.
Palmer said those two in the top of the lineup have been swinging the bat well all year.
“They have been staying aggressive, they are diehard competitors, they love to compete and get after it and I am so proud of them for that,” he said.
Dighton got the win in the circle for Boone, going four innings while allowing seven hits and three runs. Every Toreador recorded at least one hit in the win, with Jordan Trowbridge finishing the night with a 2-for-4 line and four RBIs.
“That was a good Boone team, they were pretty fundamentally sound themselves,” Palmer said.
Marshalltown now has the weekend off to rest and get ready for another tough week of CIML Iowa games. Palmer said even though his girls haven’t won a game since June 1, he knows if they stick to the plan the wins will start rolling in.
“We are just going to keep working hard,” he said. “I tell these ladies every day in practice that we just have to stay with it, we just have to keep working hard and things will pop and they will come our way eventually.”
The Bobcats will try to snap this current 10-game losing streak on Monday when they head to Fort Dodge for a doubleheader, starting at 6 p.m.
Boone 8, Marshalltown 4
At Marshalltown
Boone 203 020 1 — 8 14 1
MHS 002 000 2 — 4 8 2
Emma Dighton, Emily Ades (5) and Zoey Highstone; McKaylee Dawson and Erica Johnson. WP–Dighton. LP–Dawson. 2B–Boone: Dighton, Jordan Trowbridge, Lauren Calkins, Emily Ades; MHS: Regan Mazour. LOB–Boone 9, MHS 8.