Warriors Enjoy Success on Season-Opening Trip

Ottumwa -- A spring trip that began with five games in Mississippi and ended with six more in a rugged tournament in Florida resulted in a 10-6 record for the Indian Hills softball team, ranked 19th in the preseason NJCAA poll.

The Warriors wound up the 10-day journey by playing in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Junior College Leadoff Classic in Panama City, Florida.

In that tourney, they won two of their first three games and qualified for the Silver Championship Bracket, where they won two of three contests, including an impressive 12-2 thumping of Johnson County (Kans.) in the final game of the trip.

“I was very pleased with the trip,” said IHCC coach Jim Overturf. “I believe any time you return from a southern trip with more wins than losses you have had a lot of success. The Leadoff Classic was a great experience for our players because it had a national tournament atmosphere.”

In fact, the reason Indian Hills was invited to play in the Classic was their appearance in last year’s national tourney.

The first stop for the Warriors was the Tiger Fest tournament in Booneville, Miss. Indian Hills scored seven runs in the first two innings of their first game and rolled over East Central Mississippi, 8-2, in five innings. Kylee Coughlin, one of two returning pitchers on the roster, went the distance, scattering four hits. Sarah Wilcox had a pair of doubles and Lindsey Evans and Tory Beaver also had two hits. Beaver and Jordan Grell had two RBIs and Morgan Powers and Wilcox each scored twice.

Freshman Hannah Washburn got the start in game two against Northeast Mississippi and picked up her initial collegiate victory in a 7-2 win. Grell, Wilcox and Kylee Homewood all had two-hit games and Homewood and Jenna Wolfe each drove in a pair of runs.

Indian Hills kept it going the next day with wins against Itawamba (2-1 in 8 innings) and Northwest Mississippi (8-2) before losing a tough 1-0 decision to Copiah-Lincoln, ranked No. 10 in Division II.

The Warriors had the bases loaded in the top of the 7th of the Copiah-Lincoln game, but Powers lined hard to 3rd base to end the game. They managed only two hits, but Coughlin, a tough-luck loser, gave up only three.

Coughlin started the game with Itawamba and Washburn won it in relief. Beaver, Evans, Homewood and Powers had two hits apiece and Nicole Steinle drove in Powers with the game-winning run in the bottom of the 8th.

Ali Martin, another freshman, got her first career win against Northwest Mississippi, a complete-game five-hitter. Washburn and Powers had three hits and Beaver, Steinle and Washburn had two RBIs.

From Mississippi, the Warriors traveled to Pensacola, Florida where they routed Mercyhurst (Neb.) in the first game of a scheduled doubleheader, 9-0. Emily Hemming tossed the shutout and Sydney Hallbauer homered. IHCC was ahead 4-0 in the second game when it was rained out.

A couple of games with Pensacola State were up next and the Warriors battled back for a split. They lost the opener 6-2 before taking the nightcap 8-5.
Evans had two hits and an RBI in the opener; Homewood drove in four runs in the second game to back the pitching of Coughlin, who won her 2nd game.

The Warriors had a difficult time the following day, getting swept by Northwest Florida State. Indian Hills scored three times in the first inning of game one, but lost 10-5; they tallied five times in the 1st in the second game and lost 21-5.

The Leadoff Classic began with a 5-0 shutout loss to Chipola. IHCC was held to five hits, two of them by Grell.

Indian Hills recovered with a 3-2 win against Chesapeake (Md.) with Washburn allowing only one earned run and six hits. After spotting Chesapeake a 2-0 lead, the Warriors tied the game in the 5th and won it on a run-scoring groundout in the 6th.

The final game of pool play was a 3-2 win against San Jacinto (Tex.). Martin was the winning pitcher. The eventual game-winning run came home on a bases-loaded walk.

The victory against San Jacinto gave the Warriors the No. 5 seed in the Silver Bracket. They started out with a 9-3 loss to Spartanburg (S.C.). Evans homered and Beaver continued her hot hitting with a two-run double.

Washburn then blanked Georgia Perimeter, 4-0, with a seven-hit shutout and the 12-run, 11-hit blowout of Johnson County followed.

A four-run second inning got the Warriors off to a good start and they scored at least one run in every inning after that in defeating the 7th ranked team in DII. Grell and Wolfe each had three hits, Beaver and Grell scored three runs, and Wolfe had three RBIs. Ali Martin and Emily Hemming combined to limit Johnson County to three hits.

IHCC used five pitchers on the trip and Overturf said he is confident that they will continue to improve as the season goes on. “Our staff had some bright moments and some other moments where they struggled,” the coach said. “We need to improve on the way we start the game, an area we are going to focus on in practice. They put themselves in a hole early in a number of games, but battled to keep us close and our offense was able to score some runs.”

It was the offense that Overturf pointed to as one of the highlights, saying, “It was a pleasant surprise. Usually it takes an offense a little while to get going. But we averaged five runs a game and batted .316 as a team. That’s a good start against some quality teams.”

There were some individuals who distinguished themselves offensively. Lindsey Evans hit .487 with seven RBIs; Jordan Grell, who also had a good week defensively at third base, batted .359 with a team-leading 10 RBIs; Kylee Homewood had a .407 average and eight runs-batted-in; and Morgan Powers, batting in the second spot in the order, came back with a .340 average and scored a team-high 13 runs.

“We had a great team effort and a lot of different players stepped up when we needed them to,” said Overturf.

The Warriors will be idle until opening their home schedule against Marshalltown CC on March 17. They are slated to play five games in a tournament in Carthage, Mo. Mar. 19-20 before opening conference play at Muscatine CC on Mar. 22.