A pair of Marion County softball programs travel to a nearby tournament today, hosted by one of the top squads in the region, as both Pleasantville and Twin Cedars will compete in the North Mahaska Invite. Trojans’ head coach Robert Friday says the absence of pitching ace Liz Moore will certainly be felt, but his team should still be able to compete and take something away from both games.

“It’s going to be a little tougher this weekend. We’re going to be without our number one pitcher – she’s got to go to a college orientation – so we’re going to go up there and throw an eighth-grader and a freshman and see what happens,” said Friday. “That’s not always ideal when you’re playing one rated team and one rematch, but we’ll roll the dice, play some people and get some people some looks, and keep building.”

It’s a similar situation for Twin Cedars, as the Sabers are still without starting pitcher Morgan Rozenboom. Head coach Zack Dunkin says he expects his team to find themselves in tightly contested games between the rematch against the Trojans and the battle against the Warhawks.

“Pleasantville will be looking to get a little revenge against us. I know they played us tight [on June 6th] and really wanted to come out of that one with a ‘W’, but we did just enough in that game to pull it out. And then North Mahaska, they have that good senior class that’s been to the State Championship in basketball and won it, and I think they just win – that class does – so they know how to get things done,” said Dunkin.

“But our girls have competed with those girls, all the way up through little league and junior high. We played them really close a year ago in the Oskaloosa Tournament – I think it was a 5-3 game – so we’ll be looking to put up a good fight again this weekend.”

The first pitch from New Sharon is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. this morning.