Marshalltown Bobcats

The Mason City softball team smacked out 30 hits, including four home runs, to return the favor against Marshalltown by sweeping the host Bobcats in Thursday’s Iowa Alliance Conference North Division doubleheader.

Marshalltown (8-13, 4-6) swept the Riverhawks on their home field, winning 13-4 and 7-1 on May 23 in Mason City. On Thursday night, Mason City came seeking redeption and earned it with wins of 9-3 and 15-6.

Adyson Evans homered in each game of the twinbill as Mason City made sure to set the tone offensively in both contests.

“At the beginning of the first game I felt like they came up to Marshalltown and they were determined to take two from us, and we thought because went up to Mason City and swept them up there that we could just sleepwalk and get two wins,” said MHS head coach Jason Bowers. “They put it to us. They flat-out put it to us.”

The Riverhawks (6-10, 4-6) rapped out 11 hits in the opening game, highlighted by a two-run homer in the first inning for Evans and a three-run round-tripper from Zaria Falls in the top of the seventh. The blast by Falls capped a four-run at-bat as Mason City tacked on some added insurance.

Marshalltown trailed 3-0 for much of the game before scoring twice in the fourth inning. Gianna Baune reached on a leadoff single and Emma Stupp reached on a throwing error, allowing Baune to score. Briley Danielson hit a two-out double off the fence in left to plate pinch-runner Kaelyn Coleman, but Danielson was thrown out trying to score on Kennedy Feldman’s hit to left.

Mason City immediately got those two runs back in the top of the fifth as Evans laced a two-run, two-out double to right-center field.

Marshalltown got a run back when Madison Rogers singled and scored on a two-out error by the Riverhawks, but Mason City piled on at the end.

Karsyn Price took the loss in the circle for MHS, allowing nine earned runs on 11 hits, two walks and a hit batter. She struck out three.

Grace Fiser was 3-for-4 with a double and two runs scored to set the table for the Mason City batting order.

Baune had two of Marshalltown’s seven hits off Evans, who struck out 10 and walked none.

“Mason City came ready to play,” Bowers said. “Maybe we were taken aback a little bit.”

In the nightcap, Mason City scored early and often, tallying at least one run in six of its seven at-bats against Danielson. A four-run first set the tone for both teams.

“We kinda missed our spots today and you can see that just with how hard the balls were being hit,” Bowers said. “Our pitchers just kinda missed spots and we failed to adjust from there.

“And our bats just slept, both games. The first pitcher (Evans), I think we scored a lot on her in Mason City. We hit the crap outta the ball up there.”

On Thursday night, the Riverhawks were ripping the ball around the diamond. They had 19 hits off Danielson in Game 2, with Evans hitting a two-run homer and Reggi Spotts going 3-for-4 with two doubles, a home run and three RBIs.

Brogan Evans was 4-for-5 with a double, two RBIs and three runs scored, and Falls finished 3-for-5 with two RBIs.

Marshalltown got on track later in the game against Fiser. Laney Danielson doubled and scored on a single by Rogers during the Bobcats’ two-run fourth. In the sixth, Laney led off with a single and came across on another hit by Rogers.

In the bottom of the seventh, MHS chipped away at its 12-run deficit with a double by Aubree Mundt, a run-scoring groundout by Baune, a throwing error on Ava Kusserow’s grounder, and a single by Emma Stupp. Briley singled home Kusserow and Stupp scored on a wild pitch, but that was all the Bobcats could get with their last gasp.

“Like I told the girls in the huddle after the game, at least there’s some fight in us,” said Bowers. “It’s just sad that it took that long to get there.”

The Bobcats get Friday to practice before participating in West Marshall’s Rose Festival Tournament on Saturday in State Center. Marshalltown meets Class 2A No. 12 East Marshall at 1 p.m., while West Marshall faces Hampton-Dumont-CAL at 3 p.m. Consolation and championship games will follow.

“That’s one of the toughest things about high school softball is you get almost three weeks of practices before games start, but you’ve got half your kids in track and tennis and golf,” Bowers said. “All the sudden the season starts and you’ve got nearly no practices, so it’s hard to work on the things that you need to work on, that you find deficiencies in, and you’ve only got one practice a week to work on it all.”