A doubleheader sweep at the hands of Mason City is a cautionary tale for the Marshalltown softball team.

The Bobcats dropped both games of Wednesday’s Iowa Alliance Conference twinbill at home against the Riverhawks, falling 9-0 and 6-2 to a team they swept in their first meeting this season.

Marshalltown (15-20, 4-10) made off with wins of 5-3 and 7-6 in its trip to Mason City, but for the fourth season in a row, the Riverhawks (11-19, 6-8) claimed the second set of games against the Bobcats after being swept by them the first time around.

“You can’t win games if you can’t hit the ball, and we just were not making adjustments at the plate,” said MHS head coach Madaline Dalke. “We did not swing the bats like we have the last week. We were hitting great last week, (this was a) very similar pitcher, but that did not transpire tonight.”

Emma Stupp launched a two-run home run in the second game for her team-leading eighth round-tripper, but the blast wasn’t enough to ignite a spark for the Marshalltown offense on this night.

“Emma’s a great competitor, and yeah she did struggle a little bit in the beginning and she really decided coming back for that second game that she was gonna make adjustments and she did,” Dalke said. “She was one of the few that made adjustments.”

Stupp went 3-for-3 with a double and a homer, accounting for half of Marshalltown’s hits in the second game against Riverhawk freshman Lexi Payne. Payne struck out five and walked two in the win.

Bristol Ealy, Abby Janssen and Faith Sommerlot added singles in the nightcap, while Ealy and Kendall Brummel had the Bobcats’ only hits off senior Madalyn Chose in the five-inning opener.

Stupp took the loss in the pitching circle for Game 1, giving up five earned runs on eight hits and three walks while striking out three. Chose walked four and struck out five.

In the finale, Briley Danielson took the loss for MHS, allowing four earned runs on seven hits and four walks while striking out six. The Bobcats made three errors in each game of the twinbill.

“She worked hard tonight,” Dalke said. “I probably said it to her five times, every time I was out there talking to her, this is by far one of the best pitching games she’s had in a while and I was very, very proud of her for pushing through. All of her spins were working. She held her own for the team tonight.”

The cautionary part of Wednesday’s losses arrives in the form of facing teams you’ve already beaten, which the Bobcats do for three of their next four games. Marshalltown visited Waterloo East on Thursday having already swept the Trojans 8-0 and 9-1, and the Bobcats’ Class 5A Region 3 quarterfinal is against a Des Moines East club the ‘Cats edged 5-0 and 4-2 two weeks ago.

“We have to figure out how we’re going to come out and play Bobcat softball and not just whatever happens on the field,” Dalke said. “With (Des Moines) East, we beat them but it was close so we can’t play down. We have to play up. It’s the same battles we’ve been working on all year, and we’ve really gotta figure out how to finish. We’ve gotta push through.”