Article and Photos Steven Hendrixson, MHS Student Writer
On Monday the Lady Cubs stayed at home to face off against the St. John Eagles. The Eagles, fresh off a win against the Washington Hatchets in Washington, Illinois, came into the game with a 3-0 record. The Eagles also had a 37-7 total point difference against each of their opponents prior to this game.
The Lady Cubs came into the game with a 4-4 record, already winning one more game than last year’s softball season, when they finished with a 3-11 record. The Lady Cubs came into this game sitting at .500. This is something they never did last season, which shows great improvement as a whole.
Considering this was an experienced red-hot Eagles team at the moment, the expectation for the Cubs was to just play with grit and effort.
The Lady Cubs had initial success in the first, with Kendalyn Sanders securing a ground out against the Eagles, Riley Flaurr would then follow up this momentum by then striking out a pitcher. But off an error by Marshall and a triple from the Eagles, St. John would go up 2-0 at the start of the game. Caselyn Smallwood would ultimately secure another groundout for the Lions to stop the Eagle’s initial advance.
Marshall put up a great defensive effort in the second inning, with Kendalyn Sanders grounding out another runner, Parker Morey would strikeout a pitcher, and Riley Flaurr would have her second strikeout of the night to put the ball back into Marshall’s hands in the bottom of the second. Marshall made the Eagles go scoreless for the entirety of the 2nd inning, something no other team has done to St. John’s this season.
Things would begin to take a turn for the worse for the Cubs however, as the Eagles would go on to score three runs in the third and six runs in the 4th, going up 11-0.
In the bottom of the 4th, Kaydance Duzan would triple off a great hit to the far-right outfield, nearly getting a home run. After a sacrifice bunt from Caselyn Smallwood, Kaydance Duzan would then single to give the Lady Cubs their first run of the night 11-1.
The Eagles would end up scoring one last run in the 5th after multiple walks and singles were allowed. The Eagles ended up beating the Lady Cubs 12-1. Improving their record to 4-0 on the season. Marshall now drops to 4-5 and will travel to Robinson Nuttall Middle School for their next game.
Although the Lady Cubs lost, they only had three less total hits than the Eagles, having 5 total hits to St. John’s 8. A combination of multiple walks and triples would ultimately be the reason Marshall lost.
The Cubs showed great improvement in this game compared to last year, as they held St. John to four fewer runs than last year’s game against them.
This is also a very young Lady Cubs team, with multiple 6th and 7th graders and 4th 6th graders being starting pitchers for the game. These young players have plenty of years to gain experience and become better players overall. The goal is to prep kids for the High School level.
After the game, Head Coach Heather Setzer said, “Whenever I decided to be the Junior High coach, my goal was to prepare them for high school ball, and I’m gonna feel good that we’re gonna send a good group of girls into the high school season for next year and also that we’re gonna have a really good group of girls coming up, we started four sixth graders so I’m excited to keep teaching the skills and fundamentals to have a great season.”