Jun. 12—JEWELL — A pair of doubles in the top of the seventh inning helped PCM’s softball team rally past South Hamilton during a Heart of Iowa Conference road game on Friday night.
The Mustangs led 4-1 early but fell behind 6-5 after six innings. In the seventh, doubles by Paige Steenhoek and RaeAnn Duinink pushed PCM past the Hawks, 8-6.
The win keeps PCM in the mix for the HOIC championship as it improved to 5-1 in league play.
“I’m so proud of how these girls were able to dig deep and persevere through a rough fifth and sixth inning and rally back for the win,” PCM softball coach Shaun Hudnut said. “It was awesome to see everyone in the game contribute at the plate or in the field to help pull this one out.”
The Mustangs plated four runs in the first inning to take an early lead. Lark Drake and Joslin Briles walked on both ends of a Riley Johannes double. Steenhoek’s RBI single with two outs put the Mustangs on the board. Riley DeVore’s RBI infield single made it 2-0 and Duinink’s RBI single pushed the lead to 4-0.
Duinink finished with four hits, four RBIs and one run scored. Two of her four hits were doubles. The Mustangs had 15 hits as a team.
South Hamilton (4-7 overall, 2-4 in conference play) got within 4-3 after five innings, but PCM plated a run in the sixth to make it 5-3.
In that frame, Duinink doubled, advanced to third on a ground out by Skylar Burns and scored on Sidney Shaver’s RBI infield single.
The Hawks went in front after a three-run bottom of the frame. PCM (7-7) answered with three runs of its own in the top of the seventh.
Belle Hudnut singled and then scored on Steenhoek’s RBI double. DeVore reached base on a bunt single before her and courtesy runner Eliana Buswell scored on Duinink’s game-winning two-run double.
In the bottom of the seventh, South Hamilton stranded the bases loaded after Steenhoek got the Hawks’ final batter of the game to line out to Johannes at third base.
Steenhoek improved to 6-2 in the circle after allowing six earned runs on 12 hits with three strikeouts and nine walks in seven innings.
Steenhoek, Shaver, Belle Hudnut and DeVore all had two hits. Steenhoek tallied two RBIs, Shaver had one RBI and Belle Hudnut scored a run. DeVore added one run and one RBI.
Briles finished with one hit, one run, one walk and one steal, Drake tallied one hit, one run and one walk and Johannes added one hit and one run.