The Grundy Center summer sports teams will return to NICL-West action by hosting South Hardin Thursday at George Wilhelm Sports Complex.
Spartan Baseball Coach Pat Brown Jr. says his veteran team, with eight of last year’s starters, is ready to hit its stride after starting the season near .500.
“The competition amongst the guys is really well, and guys when they do get in in that ninth spot, they’re not making mistakes” Brown says. “The guys that have played, they’re playing themselves back into shape. Early, we made some mistakes. The East Marshall game was brutal as far as the mistakes we made in that first inning, and then just the inability to get something going with the bats. These kids are battle tested. They’re tried and true and they’re just getting ready to play more and more.”
The Spartans (7-6, 4-3 NICL-W) are coming off a 4-3 home loss to Waterloo Columbus Wednesday, where the Sailors scored twice in the sixth inning to secure the win. Hayden Geerdes led with three hits. Brayden Davie pitched 5.1 innings with two strikeouts, two walks and three hits.
South Hardin (8-5, 6-1 NICL-W) is looking to stay on top of the conference standings. They’re coming off a 10-0, five-inning loss Tuesday to #1 (2A) West Marshall, but swept AGWSR in a conference doubleheader Monday. Peyton Welch bats .393. The Tigers lead the West in RBIs and runs scored. The teams split a doubleheader in Eldora early in the season.
The Spartan softball team (7-10, 1-5 NICL-W) is coming off Wednesday’s 10-0, five inning win over Columbus Catholic, where they scored five in the first to set the tone. The defense is steadily improving, especially in pitching. Head Coach Andy Lebo says his team has the distinction of having four viable pitching options.
“They’ve really thrown a lot of strikes and we cut way down on the amount of walks and pitched more to contact than we did last year,” Lebo says. “We’ve been pretty solid when Lucy plays shortstop and we’ve brought Ava Mundt along. She’s one who’s starting to get more innings. So we’ve got three or four girls that can pitch. And I mean, Maddie Hendershot does a great job in the circle. She’s throwing strikes. She’s been dealing with a little bit of injury issues here lately. That’s kind of kept her out of the lineup, but still able to pitch and has been solid force there. Lucy Lebo always comes in and throws strikes. One more too is Allison Koch. We’ve not been able to find her a whole lot of innings yet this year, which is kind of a problem trying to find innings for everybody. And that’s not normal for softball.”
Maddy Hendershot and Ava Mundt have pitched the majority of the innings. The team ERA is 2.54.
South Hardin (10-9, 5-2 NICL-W) is in second place in the league, a game and a half behind #12 (2A) East Marshall. They’re coming off a doubleheader sweep of AGWSR Monday, including an eight-inning win in Game 2. The Tigers have excelled in pitching, with the duo of Charlee Rosonke and Hailey Rosonke leading the North Iowa Cedar League with a 1.23 ERA.
Both games will start at 7:00 p.m. The baseball game will air on 99 The Wave with pregame coverage beginning at 6:50.
