By Marissa VanWingen, The Times-Citizen
SUNDAY | Ellsworth splits Hawkeye 0-11, 4-2
Iowa Falls, IA – Ellsworth Community College softball hosted cellar dwelling Hawkeye Community College in the final regular season doubleheader on Sunday. The RedTails (11-44, 2-26) made the series interesting, recording an 11-0 win in game one before ECC bounced back for the 4-2 victory.
The Panthers (17-31, 6-22) smacked the ball around in the second contest, recording eight hits. They scored two runs in both of the first and second frames and held on for the win. Leading at the dish for their final game at Legion Field were sophomores Alli Paulsen and Taryn Petty. Paulsen went 2-3 at the dish with a pair of RBI and two runs scored. Petty was 2-3 with a double and an RBI. Ella Garstang also recorded an extra base knock with a triple. Avery Somers, Ainsley Brown and Ashley Garza-Balverde also had hits.
Hailey Sheaffer picked up the win in the circle, going four innings, allowing four hits, two runs and walked three. Angelica Agro came in for the final three innings and the save allowing just one hit and fanning four.
The visitors built a 5-0 lead in the top of the first and never looked back in game one, scoring one in the fourth and five more in the fifth. The Panther defense struggled with four errors.
Agro started the game and got the loss. She went 2.1 innings with one hit, five runs (zero earned), three walks and a strikeout. Peytin Clemensen came in for the final 4.2 innings and allowed six hits, six runs, walked one and fanned two. Each hit a batter for more free bases.
On sophomore day, Petty was 2-2 with a double. Garstang (1-3) and Brown (1-3) were the others with knocks.
The Region XI Tournament is set to begin on Friday and ECC is a seventh seed, facing 10th-ranked Iowa Central at 2 p.m. in Fort Dodge. In a double elimination tournament, the Panthers would then play at either noon on Saturday or 2 p.m. on Saturday with the finals on Sunday.
SATURDAY | No. 4 DMACC 9-1, 9-1 Ellsworth
DMACC had won eight in a row heading into the series against Ellsworth Community College, while the Panthers had lost eight consecutive games.
The fourth-ranked and Iowa Community College Athletic Conference leading Bears handed ECC a pair of identical 9-1 losses and swept the series. DMACC had won the two games previous 8-0 and 13-0.
In the opener, the Bears (48-5, 24-2) built an 8-0 lead through four innings before ECC manufactured their run. In the bottom of the fourth, Alli Paulsen led off with a triple. A sacrifice fly off the bat of Emmalee Bell sent Paulsen home, but the Panthers would not get on base again.
ECC (16-30, 5-21) had just one other base runner in the contest. With two outs in the first frame, Bell had a single but was left stranded at first.
Peytin Clemensen took the loss in the circle, going all five innings and allowing six hits, nine runs (five earned) walked five and struck out one. The DMACC pitching staff combined for no walks and five strikeouts.
Game two was close until the sixth frame. ECC knotted the contest in the second inning at 1-1 on an RBI off the bat of Kendra Rohner. The Bears went back on top in the sixth with two runs and then blew the game open on the seventh with a six-spot.
The Panthers had more offense with five hits, including Taryn Petty going 2-3 with a double. Ella Garstang, Paulsen and Rohner had the other hits.
Hailey Sheaffer took the loss, going 6.1 innings and allowing four hits, three runs (one earned) and walking one. Clemensen came in for the final two outs and allowed seven hits, five runs, one walk and one strikeout.
For more Times-Citizen coverage of Ellsworth athletics: https://www.timescitizen.com/sports/ecc
