The optimist sees a doubleheader sweep and the eighth win in the last nine games.

A pessimist will point out how close the games were on the final scoreboard.

First-year head coach Madaline Dalke has her eyes open to both ends of the spectrum.

Emma Stupp homered in both games of Thursday’s Marshalltown softball sweep of winless Des Moines East/North and the Bobcats beat the Scarlets 5-0 and 4-2 to prevail for the eighth time in their last nine games.

Marshalltown (10-8) got a pair of prolific pitching performances in the twinbill, starting with Stupp’s one-hit shutout in the opener. She struck out 12, walked none, and drove in two of her team’s five runs offensively.

Stupp hit an RBI single to score Briley Danielson in the second inning and homered to lead off the fourth to put the Bobcats on top 3-0. Kendall Brummel had a bunt single and scored on an Ella DeMonte groundout in between.

An infield bunt single by Brummel in the bottom of the sixth drove in Leah Graves and Olivia Wise, and East/North (0-12) went down 1-2-3 in the top of the seventh.

Brooklinn Purdy was the only Scarlet to reach base, hitting a double and reaching on an error, but she was stranded at third both times.

Stupp and Brummel both had two hits and two RBIs to lead the Bobcats.

In the nightcap, Stupp’s two-run, two-out homer in the bottom of the fourth brought Marshalltown back into a 2-all tie, and Abby Janssen’s two-run, two-out single in the fifth provided the eventual final margin.

“Emma’s clutch,” Dalke said. “That was the word I used before the game — that we needed to be clutch. Emma is a very, very smart player and she’s a force to be reckoned with. That girl knows her swing and she knows her pitch, and she can get on a ball. All glory to her because she is a good hitter.”

Marshalltown was hitless in the second game until Charlotte Reyes ripped a one-out single in the third. Danielson laced a one-out single in the fourth, and Stupp followed one out later with a behemoth shot over the left field fence.

Danielson and her defense got three groundouts in the fifth, and MHS kept the momentum turning with another two-out rally. Brummel walked and Bristol Ealy singled and Janssen followed by bouncing the go-ahead hit up the middle.

The Bobcat defense made just one error in support of Danielson, who allowed just three hits and two unearned runs while walking one and striking out four.

“I know Briley didn’t get what she wanted because she wanted strikeouts, but she produced a lot of outs,” Dalke said. “Those are outs. They’re not as pretty or whatever, and strikeouts are great as a pitcher, but you don’t need those to win games.”

Seven different Bobcats had one hit in the second game, including Stupp’s sixth homer of the season and a double for Wise and a single for Lauren O’Neal.

Marshalltown’s wins were moral victories of sorts for the Scarlets, who had scored just six runs in their first 10 games of the season and hadn’t been beaten by fewer than eight runs.

“I think we’re doing well,” Dalke said. “I think we should have won that game a little differently, so moving into the weekend they have to show up and compete at a higher level and not go down. I felt like we played down tonight and we didn’t play at our level, so we need to be at ours or above.”

The Bobcats visit State Center on Saturday night for the Rose Festival Tournament, where they’ll face Class 2A No. 9 East Marshall at 5 p.m. and host West Marshall at 7 p.m.

“They’re good teams we’re playing and win or lose, it’s gonna be good,” Dalke added. “We’re gonna take away good things from it. We can’t lose anything from it.”