Marshalltown Bobcats

The Marshalltown softball team endured Grinnell’s seventh-inning rally to rack up a 7-4 win over the visiting Tigers on Thursday night.

MHS junior left-hander Karsyn Price allowed just one hit between the first and seventh innings, retiring 18 of 19 batters in between Grinnell’s offensive outbursts. The Tigers (2-6) bookended the ballgame with one run in the first and three in the seventh, but it wasn’t enough because of what Marshalltown (3-3) did in between.

The Bobcats scored twice in the first, three times in the third and twice more in the fifth to get back in the win column a night after getting swept by Des Moines Lincoln on the same diamond.

“If we’d had that (offense) in game one against Lincoln last night we’d have won that game,” said MHS head coach Jason Bowers. “We stringed things together tonight, which is really nice, and we played a little bit of small ball and we got some chaos going on the bases. I thought it was a very good balance of hitting the ball really well and playing a little small ball.”

Gianna Baune’s leadoff bunt single in the bottom of the first inning fed into Marshalltown’s mentality of answering Grinnell’s fast start. The Tigers turned two hits into one run in the top of the frame, and the Bobcats had an answer for it.

Bella Avise’s sacrifice bunt got Baune all the way to third, and Kate Sandvick’s comebacker to the pitching circle was misplayed. Sandvick took second on the play and scored on a wild pitch to put Marshalltown up 2-1.

In the third, MHS got four straight singles from Avise, Sandvick, and sisters Laney and Briley Danielson to tack on three runs for a 5-1 advantage.

In the fifth, the Bobcats added some eventually necessary insurance. Avise reached safely on a swinging bunt to start the at-bat, and Sandvick reached on her sacrifice bunt as well. Laney followed with an RBI double to the gap in right-center field, but Sandvick was cut down trying to score on Briley’s ball back to the pitcher.

Facing an 0-2 count, MHS junior Ava Kusserow drove in Laney with a groundout to the right side of the infield.

In the end, all the sacrifice bunts and extra bases made a huge different.

“It’s about making the play and winning the game,” said Sandvick, the team’s leading hitter. “You gotta do what you gotta do in the situation and obviously getting a sac bunt and moving the runners, sometimes it works in your favor and you get on base but sometimes you don’t. Either way you’ve still gotta find a way to move that runner and that’s really the most important part.”

Those extra runs played a pivotal role in reducing the rising stress level in the end. Price got a groundout to start the seventh, but Grinnell followed with three straight singles from Josie Smith, Mayci Andrews and Kennedy Harms to get the team’s first run since the top of the first.

Rylie Imhoff lined out to left field, but Kaitlyn Smith was hit by a pitch to load the bases. With leadoff batter Taylor Smith at the plate, wild pitches plated two more runs to put Grinnell within 7-4. Price settled down to get Smith on strikes to end the game with the potential tying run standing in the on-deck circle.

“They got a couple hits and the momentum shifted a little bit,” Bowers said. “The girls almost didn’t realize we had as big of a lead as we did, but it still effects them because the momentum changes the way they think.

“In the (pitcher’s) circle I told them it’s a good thing because it builds a little bit of grit, especially for my pitcher. She’s going to learn from that when this comes around again and we need her to bear down and go after a batter. Now she knows she can do it.”

Price allowed just six hits and four runs without walking a batter, hitting one while striking out three. MHS made just two errors behind her, but nothing that prolonged a scoring opportunity for Grinnell.

“They got a couple hits at the end but I’m proud of Karsyn because she definitely showed some grit,” said Sandvick. “Coach Bowers touched on it after the game, he was like ‘I’m really proud of where our defense is at’ and I am too because we’ve worked on it a lot.

“They started getting runners on and obviously that can happen, but we just needed to focus on outs. We were up by five or six so there’s really no need to make that diving catch or amazing play, it was more about outs at that time.

“Hitting wins games but defense wins championships in my mind.”

Kylee Bond had two hits to lead the Tigers. Left-hander Rhiannon Rees struck out seven and walked one, allowing eight hits and one walk. Grinnell committed five errors.

Avise, Sandvick and Laney Danielson each had two hits and scored twice for the Bobcats, who go on the road Monday to face Ames in Iowa Alliance Conference play.