Members of the Marshalltown softball team have shown the willingness to accept responsibility for their actions, their decisions and their commitments.

The sooner the Bobcats accept their occasional shortcomings, the sooner they can learn from them, grow and move on.

Marshalltown took ownership for its mistakes in the first game of Friday’s Bobcat Softball Classic and answered for them in the second, splitting the non-conference twinbill at the Marshalltown Community College/Marshalltown Girls Softball Association diamonds.

Playing their 10th game in a span of seven days, the Bobcats suffered their ninth consecutive loss with an 11-1, four-inning setback at the hands of Class 3A No. 7 Davenport Assumption before outlasting Clarke Community, 8-5, in a game shortened to six innings due to a time limit.

The Bobcats (11-17) made four errors against a hard-hitting Assumption squad but none in the finale against Clarke to capture their first win in eight days. Some of those miscues that don’t show up in the statistics were perhaps more detrimental to the team’s growth, too.

“We made a lot of errors that were errors we shouldn’t have been making since we were 12, and not just physical errors,” said MHS head coach Madaline Dalke. “Mental errors. I can deal with the physical errors, you can fix physical errors, but what I won’t deal with is the mental errors.

“That’s what we talked about after the first game and they definitely bounced back a lot better, and they were definitely heads up running the bases in the second game, so that was very nice.”

Playing a regular-season schedule chock-full of doubleheaders gives the Bobcats added experience in recovering quickly for a weekend’s worth of games. Saturday’s three-game slate won’t even leave much time in between games for the team to get its bearings.

“They’ve been getting better at recovering fairly quickly,” Dalke said. “We are three quarters of the way through the season and every girl knows that if you’re not doing your job, you’re out. If you’re not ready to go, you’re out. I’m going to put someone else in who’s ready to go.

“They responded very well to that, but they also all know so they can’t act surprised when something like that happens. It’s something we as a coaching staff voice before every single game.”

Marshalltown dealt with its share of mishaps against Davenport Assumption (23-8), racking up four hits to go with a walk in the bottom of the first inning but only scoring one run. Baserunning gaffes proved costly as the Bobcats were only able to answer one of the Knights’ four runs in the first.

Charlotte Nigey hit a two-run homer to help Assumption to a 4-0 lead in its first at-bat. Bristol Ealy and Abby Janssen both singled and Briley Danielson doubled before Ella DeMonte drove home courtesy runner Erandy Ibarra Madrigal to get Marshalltown on the board, 4-1.

The Knights kept it up, scoring four more times in the second — boosted by two Bobcat errors — and added three runs in the fourth for an 11-1 advantage.

Danielson took the loss in the circle for MHS, allowing seven earned runs on 10 hits and two walks while striking out two.

Nigey led the Knights at the plate, going 2-for-3 with a double, a homer and four RBIs. Freshman pitcher Harper Shook allowed only two hits after the first inning, walking three and striking out two in the win.

Ealy was 2-for-2 with a double and Faith Sommerlot added a single for the ‘Cats.

“I thought Briley pitched very, very well,” Dalke said. “If you eliminated — I counted six mental errors, which then turned into three or four actual physical errors — I thought we should have been in it a little bit more.”

Just like Assumption, Clarke (12-14) chalked up four runs in the top of the first inning of the day’s finale, scoring all of them with two outs. A two-run single for Ahnyka Hewlett and a two-run double by Maddie Youngs gave the Indians the upper hand, but Marshalltown was up to the challenge.

Ealy led off with a double, Danielson drove her home with a double off the wall, and three-straight two-out singles by Emma Stupp, Sommerlot and Olivia Wise made it 4-3. A passed ball plated Sommerlot to tie the score.

Stupp surrendered a two-out double in the top of the second but avoided further damage, and MHS countered. Janssen blooped a single to left before Danielson doubled again. A wild pitch plated Janssen’s courtesy runner Leah Graves, and an errant throw back to the plate allowed Danielson to follow.

Lauren O’Neal, who had walked, took third on Stupp’s double off the fence before scoring on an errant pickoff attempt, putting the Bobcats on top 7-4.

Madrigal singled to start the fifth, stole second, took third on a wild pitch and scored on a groundout by Ealy to bring the score to its final.

Stupp struck out seven and walked two in the win, allowing five runs on seven hits. Clarke’s Abbi Nash struck out three but walked four and allowed 11 hits by the Bobcat bats.

Stupp was 2-for-3 with a double, Janssen was 2-for-4 and Danielson was 2-for-4 with two doubles. O’Neal, Sommerlot, Wise and Madrigal all added singles and Ealy hit a double.

Dalke said pitchers Hanna Osgood and Sommerlot will see time in the circle on Saturday as the Bobcats complete a stretch of 13 games in eight days. Marshalltown meets Colfax-Mingo at 9:30 a.m., Grundy Center at 11:15 a.m. and BCLUW at 1 p.m.