The Dike-New Hartford softball team will enter next week with the goal of bouncing back from two losses at Hudson Thursday. The Wolverines dropped both games of a conference doubleheader 7-6 in nine innings and 8-3. Earlier in the week, the Wolverines won 15-3 in three innings at Aplington-Parkersburg and beat Wapsie Valley 10-9.
At 10-7 and 5-3 in the NICL-Central, the Wolverines have been serviceable with several underclassmen in key roles. Head Coach Tianna Butteris.
“I think we’re a good hitting team,” Butteris says. “The days that we struggle most is when we’re not necessarily very productive at the plate, but also keeping it clean. We’re still working on taking care of the ball every single game. I’d like to see us get better at that. Obviously physical errors are gonna happen, but it’s the amount that we’ve seen in the past and then them leading to mental errors that we’re trying to cut down right now. So just taking care of the ball, knowing how each play matters in the long run. So getting it done as efficiently as possible and making sure that we’re clean on defense. That’s been pretty much our big focus this year, is trying to be clean.”
Madde Buskohl bats .476 to lead the team and has a team-high eight extra-base hits. Hanna Steffen has five stolen bases to lead the way.
Defensively, the Wolverines have allowed just one opponent to score 10 or more runs, which starts with sophomore pitcher Faith Gray. Butteris says Gray is versatile.
“She has been what has kept us in some of these games that we’ve played against ranked teams, against better teams. She threw some really great games against some really tough teams. So it’s good to see her compete. She just does a really good job of moving it around the plate, and she has a couple different things that we can go to. If somebody’s kind of picking up on her other pitches, she’s got a lot of things that we can go to. So it’s nice. She’s got lots of options and she, for the most part, can throw it pretty much anytime. That always helps that we’re not just stuck throwing one pitch to each batter because then they have chances to adjust. But she just does a good job of keeping hitters on their toes with where she can locate and different speeds and things like that.”
Gray’s 2.14 ERA leads the NICL-Central. She’s recorded 59 strikeouts and just 11 walks in 72 innings.
Dike-New Hartford will return to action Monday by hosting Denver in a NICL-Central doubleheader. The Wolverines won 10-0 in six innings in the first meeting this season.
