ADM’s schedule saw both sides of good fortune this week, with the softball team cranking out big wins while the baseball crew saw a couple of leads slip away. (Events covered June 10-16)
Baseball (6-13)
The Tigers caught a number of tough breaks this week, losing control of games with Winterset, Sergeant Bluff-Luton and Ballard. Letting go of late leads, the Tigers were just a couple of plays away from holding a 9-10 record but are now seven games below .500 halfway through the season.
Up 3-0 against a Ballard team with 14 wins, the Tigers let go of the lead in the fourth inning after surrendering five runs to the Bombers on Monday. Two days prior, a 14-win Sergeant Bluff team scored the go-ahead two runs in the seventh inning for a 4-3 win. And three days earlier, Winterset posted four runs in the sixth inning to walk out of Adel with a 7-4 win.
In the middle of those heartbreaks, the Tigers did manage to take a 10-3 win over Glenwood.
Leadoff hitter Alex Jensen has been one of the team’s brightest spots this season and proved it again against the Rams, hitting his first varsity home run (and the team’s only of the year) on top of two more runs scored after stealing five bases. Only five other players in Class 3A have five steals in a game this season, and he moved up to second in the leaderboard at 22 overall (matching last year’s leader on the roster).
Softball (13-5)
After a three-game stumble the previous week brought the Tigers dangerously close to .500, ADM has now ripped off seven straight wins while trusting the process and improved their overall outlook thanks to a handful of ranked wins.
North Polk has had the Tigers’ number over the past few years with the exception of last year’s state semifinals. And as the No. 2 team in Class 4A this year and the inside track to the conference title, the Comets are once again a tough challenge. Despite a home crowd, that wasn’t enough to keep the Tigers at bay, with ADM winning 5-4 in extra innings, thanks in part to Kennedy Stanford hitting her first home run of the season.
However, that was North Polk’s first Raccoon River loss of the season while ADM stands at 5-3 in the league, keeping the Comets in the driver’s seat. The two meet again in Adel on July 2 in what could have critical implications for a title claim this year.
The Tigers would hit the road again the next day for a tournament in North Scott, coming out of the gates with another comeback win over No. 6 Pleasant Valley, 4-3. The third-ranked North Scott proved to be a lighter challenge in a 5-2 victory for the Tigers, headlined by Lauren Hagedorn pitching four shutout innings on top of hitting her sixth homer of the season.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: ADM softball topples three ranked teams, baseball’s heartbreakers
Reporting by Sean Cordy / Des Moines Register
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
