The Pella Christian summer sports teams were unable to break back into the win column Wednesday night at Newton. The Class 2A #8 ranked Eagles softball team fell 11-1 to the Cardinals, while the baseball squad dropped another heartbreaker 3-2.
After a scoreless first inning of the softball game, Newton’s offense exploded for a six-run second inning. Pella Christian would answer with their lone run in the top of the third inning, as Emri Agre tripled and scored on a Faith Kacmarynski single. From there it would be all Cardinals as they would score five more times in the contest to push the Eagles losing streak to five.
In baseball, Pella Christian would dig themselves into a hole early, as a first inning error kept the frame alive, and Newton would capitalize for two runs. The Cardinals would then add their third run on a wild pitch in the second inning. Trailing 3-0, the Eagles tried to mount a comeback with a Corbin Westerkamp solo home run in the sixth and a RBI single from Micah DeHaan in the seventh that scored Collin Vander Wal, but the rally fell short. Pella Christian baseball has now lost eight of their last nine games, with six of those losses being decided by less than two runs or in the final inning. Knowing that this stretch of tough loss can take its toll on a team, Head Coach Braden Shull says his players need to dig deep to remain confident they can break out of this slump.
“We can give them all the confidence from us, it’s just got to come from inside. It’s got to come from them. So, we gotta do things in practice that put them in a position to be successful. We gotta put them in positions in games to be successful and hopefully they get rolling.”
The Pella Christian softball team now has a 5-9 record overall and 1-6 record in the Little Hawkeye Conference, while the Eagles baseball team’s record is 4-8 overall and 1-6 in the conference. Both teams will look to snap their losing skids on Friday with a doubleheader at Oskaloosa. The second game of the baseball doubleheader can be heard live on 92.1 KRLS beginning with pregame coverage around 7:15 p.m.