The Pella Christian and Norwalk summer sports teams square off on Eagle Lane Monday night, as the first round of Little Hawkeye Conference games wind down.

After starting the season 4-1, the Eagles baseball team is looking to get their summer back on track after being swept by Pella Friday to fall to 8-10 overall on the season. The Warriors baseball team, who started the year 6-4, are also looking to bounce back after going 0-5 last week. Norwalk has dominated the baseball series between the two teams in recent matchups, winning 10 of the 12 games between the two teams since the 2019 season. 

On the softball diamond, the Warriors are hoping to restart their winning streak. Norwalk opened the season 11-0, but ended last week by losing two of the final three games against Dallas Center-Grimes and Ames. Norwalk head coach Beau Livingston said his players were disappointed to drop their first two games of the year, but adds that he believes it will make them stronger down the road.

“We still control everything that we want to accomplish this year, nothing’s out of our hands. We’re not relying on anybody else, we just got to go make sure that we’re getting better. I’ve got to coach better, we’ve got to play better in certain spots, and we have to do the little things better.”

The Pella Christian softball team will have their hands full Monday against the Class 5A #1 ranked Warriors, as they look to end a nine game losing streak. Eagles head coach Mindi Kacmarynski says that while they are hoping to get back in the win column, they are primarily working to get better with each pitch.

“We have decided we can not play the scoreboard. We’re not looking at that scoreboard, we are competing every pitch. The first game of the year, I looked out over there and off of last year’s team that was on the field, there were two girls playing that ended the season, and one was not in her normal spot. And we have just made so much progress, so I’m super proud of them. I keep saying, we’re building a wall, we’re building this wall and they are buying in.”

Coverage of Pella Christian and Norwalk softball Monday night can be heard live on 92.1 KRLS, beginning with pregame coverage at 7 pm. The Eagles and Warriors baseball game can be heard live on the KNIA3 stream at KNIAKRLS.com at 7:15 pm.