The second half of the regular season has arrived, and two NICL-West schools will meet for summer sports doubleheaders Monday when Grundy Center hosts AGWSR at George Wilhelm Sports Complex. The softball doubleheader will air on 99 The Wave with pregame coverage at 4:50 p.m., followed by the start of both doubleheaders at 5:00.
The Spartan baseball team (8-6, 5-3 NICL-W) is coming off Thursday’s 8-1 win over South Hardin that put them a game behind first place in the conference. Head Coach Pat Brown Jr. says managing the pitching staff in a stretch of four games in three days will be crucial.
“We’ve got those two important pod games so then all of a sudden you’re looking at we’re gonna need at least two guys to pitch those other two games,” Brown says. “So we’re gonna focus on taking care of business, so that Tate Jirovsky could come back, we might have to look at maybe getting him out of there in 45 pitches instead of 60 pitches, manage that. But you know, if you look at statistics and baseball and everything, it’s very very difficult to win them all, and you gotta win the ones that you have to win. I think those two games are two games that we have to win.”
Grundy Center won 11-0 in five innings when the teams met earlier in the season.
AGWSR (4-11, 2-5 NICL-W) is coming off an exceedingly rare stretch of a week between games. In their last outing, they were swept at home by South Hardin in a doubleheader on Monday, June 10. Kaden Abbas continues to lead offensively while batting .439. Eighth graders Landen Dennis and Remington Kerns have also put together impressive at-bats to lead the team.
The Cougar softball team (2-15, 0-6 NICL-W) will have an opportunity for their first conference win. They’ll look to rebound defensively from a 17-7, six-inning loss at Denver Thursday, where they gave up runs in each inning.
Grundy Center (7-11, 1-6 NICL-W) is coming off Thursday’s 9-7 home loss to South Hardin, where they scored each of their runs in the bottom of the seventh inning but couldn’t complete the comeback. Maddy Hendershot and Lucy Lebo each drove in two runs, and the Spartans sparked a rally without being walked. Grundy Center won 10-0 in five innings when the teams met earlier this season.
