The Pella Christian summer sports teams were unable to change their recent fortunes Friday night against a pair of ranked Dallas Center-Grimes squads, with the baseball team falling 9-4 and the softball team losing 14-2 in three innings.

The Class 4A #4 ranked Mustangs baseball team gained the upper hand in the bottom of the second, scoring the game’s first two runs of the night. The Eagles responded a half inning later, when Caleb Van Arendonk’s triple brought home Connor Van Zee and Tysen De Vries, and a DCG error on the play allowed Caleb to score and give Pella Christian a 3-2 lead. The Mustangs answered back with a run in the bottom of the third, before erupting for six runs in the fourth inning to regain a 9-3 advantage. A wild pitch in the top of the fifth allowed Luke Fynaardt to cut the Eagles’ deficit to 9-4, but that was as close as they would get as they fell to 5-6 overall on the season and 0-3 in Little Hawkeye Conference play. Eliot Menninga was the only Pella Christian batter to record multiple hits in the contest, going 2-for-2 at the plate. Menninga was also saddled with the loss on the mound, after giving up five earned runs on eight hits in 4.2 innings with four strikeouts. 

On the softball diamond, the Eagles struggled to keep the Class 4A #7 ranked Mustangs off the base paths in the loss. DCG scored five runs in the bottom of the first, before adding four more runs in the second and five runs in the third to secure the run-rule win. Pella Christian scored their only two runs of the game in the top of the second, when Laurel Roozeboom singled to left field and scored Mya Huisman and Chloe Nikkel. Claire Braafhart was the lone Eagle to reach base twice in the loss, recording a first inning single and a second inning walk. Roozeboom suffered the loss in the circle, allowing ten earned runs and 13 hits in 2.1 innings while striking out one. The loss dropped Pella Christian to 1-5 overall and 0-3 in the conference this season.

The Eagles baseball team is back in action today at the Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont tournament, competing against Pekin in their first game at 12:30 pm. The Pella Christian softball team is off until Monday, when they make the short trip southeast for a doubleheader at Oskaloosa.