The fifth-ranked Remsen St. Mary’s softball team fought through a tough game to defeat Gehlen Catholic 7-5 in Remsen on Tuesday night.
Even with a winning performance put forth, the Hawks were not firing on all cylinders like a team that has been to state three years in a row with the same core group. Head coach Monte Harpenau says he needed his girls to lock their focus in at times during the game.
That focus on Gehlen Catholic was warranted because the Jays were coming in as the hottest team in the area. They had won their first three games by a combined margin of 45-7. Head coach Tony Kerkvliet says the Jays played with a ton of continued confidence even if they did not get the result they wanted.
The Hawks just kept letting Gehlen hang around in the game thanks to some major defensive issues that are not usually prevalent. The Hawks committed a total of five errors in the field, and Coach Harpenau says they were just some little things that mounted for his team.
At the plate, Remsen St. Mary’s always had an answer. The Jays scored a run in the top of the first, and Remsen St. Mary’s scored two. The Jays scored one in the third, and the Hawks added one too. This came to a head when the Jays got two runs in the sixth to take the lead, and the Hawks answered again with four runs that gave them the lead for good. Coach Harpenau says baserunning was a major factor to their run-producing innings.
The Jays drop to 1-1 in the War Eagle Conference and 3-1 overall with the loss. Even with the loss, the Jays will take some positives from the matchup that will need to lead to big matchups down the road. Coach Kervliet says a game like this is a building block for bigger and better things later on.
For Remsen St. Mary’s, they are simply trying to find a rhythm and routine to their start of the season. After the late-running spring sports seasons and the rain outs in the first week of the year, the Hawks have had a tough time running a consistent game or practice schedule for everyone. Coach Harpenau says once that rhythm is created, good things will happen.
The Hawks will next take on West Sioux on Friday while Gehlen Catholic is back in action right away at Hinton. KLEM Radio will have the live broadcast of that matchup from the Hinton softball diamond.
