The Pella High baseball team split a road doubleheader with Newton last night, while across town the Cardinals took a pair from the Lady Dutch softball team.

Avery Van Zee’s grand slam and Caleb Piersma’s complete game shutout were highlights of Pella’s 13-0 baseball victory in five innings in the front end of the twin bill. Newton took the nightcap 4-3.

In softball, the Lady Dutch built a 2-0 lead in the opener, thanks in part to a Destiny Brown RBI double, but the Cardinals rallied to win 3-2.

Then in game two, as heard live on 92.1 KRLS, the Cardinals scored seven runs in the first two innings and took advantage of seven Pella errors en route to a 13-3 five inning victory.

Coach Robin Llewellyn and her staff spent quite a bit of time in the outfield with the team afterwards, and she says that it was nice that some of the leaders spoke up and voiced their frustrations.

“They realize that they need to start putting stuff together, because obviously, nobody wants to play a game like this and have this result. One of the things that we need to work on is having some consistency all around. Having a good pitching effort combined with a good solid defense combined with our hitting. Right now, there’s always one missing somewhere or the other, so we’re just trying to work on being consistent all the way around.”

The highlight of game two for Pella was Alizabeth Van Dusseldorp’s two-for-three performance at the plate with a double, two RBI and two stolen bases.

Pella is now 3-12 on the season and 0-6 in Little Hawkeye Conference play. They get right back into action tonight at Eddyville-Blakesburg.

Pella’s baseball team is also in action tonight, hosting Saydel. The Little Dutch will enter play this evening with a record of 5-5.