A pair of home runs gave Pella the edge despite 10 defensive errors against #9 in 2A Pella Christian as the Dutch defeated the Eagles 8-6 in nine wild softball innings, as heard live on 92.1 KRLS Monday night.

A quiet pair of opening innings set the stage for the teams to trade runs for the remainder of the game. The Eagle struck first in the top of the 3rd with a pair of doubles by Emma Eekhoff and Claire Braffhart, and the Dutch answered in the 4th inning with a Thea Wisse double and Ella Corbin sac-fly RBI. P.C. responded right away to take back the lead in the 5th, with another Eekhoff double and Braafhart RBI, and the Dutch followed that up by taking their first lead in the bottom half of the inning, spurred by two tough defensive miscues for the road team following an Ava Curry double.

An Emri Agre double set up a run to be scored after a Faith Kacmarynski single was compounded by a Pella error in the 6th. After neither team scored in the 7th — and the Dutch left the bases loaded with two outs, an infield single and another Pella error allowed Pella Christian to score three unearned runs in the top of the 8th.

With their backs against the wall and down to their final strike, Kiki Riggen smashed a three-run home run in the bottom of the 8th to tie the game. From there, Pella Christian had a lead off Claire Westerkamp double erased caught stealing from a throw by Curry in the 9th, and Catrina Dixson provided the final fireworks with a pinch-hit walk-off home run (pictured above). Hear a full interview with the duo on this week’s KNIA/KRLS Radio Sports Page, airing at 6 p.m. Wednesday and 10 a.m. Thursday on 92.1 KRLS.

Pella pitcher Saige DeJong turned in her best performance of the summer to earn the win in the pitcher’s circle, giving up two earned runs in nine innings, walking only two Eagles.

This is the first time since the Little Hawkeye Conference moved to three game series in the league that Pella has won three consecutive conference games. The Dutch improve to 8-9 overall and 4-5 in league play and will travel to Knoxville tonight. Varsity action begins against the Panthers at 7 p.m., with pregame at 6:30 on both 95.3 KNIA and 92.1 KRLS. Pella Christian has now dropped eight in a row and fall to 5-12 overall and 1-9 in the conference, and will return to action Wednesday at home for a doubleheader with #5 in 4A Norwalk — game two can be heard on the KNIA3 stream at KNIAKRLS.com.