LISBON — Right in his own back yard just a few short blocks from his home, Anamosa softball coach Gary Stamp felt right at home as his Raiders salvaged a split at the annual two-day Lisbon Invitational Saturday, July 8, posting big wins over North Cedar and Humboldt.

“I wasn’t too happy with the way we were playing Friday and we had a kind of meeting of the minds after our second game of the tournament and the girls responded with a great day Saturday,” said Stamp as Anamosa opened the second and final day of the tournament with an impressive 3-2, eight-inning victory over a powerful North Cedar club. “We fell behind in the third inning but kept battling and kept battling and finally caught them with a pair of runs in our last at-bat.”

Anamosa (15-26, 9-9) tied the game in the bottom of the seventh inning when Kayla Sanborn and Cammy Dole crossed the plate to force extra frames.

“We can be a team that can come back and win games,” said Stamp. “We’ve shown that on several occassions this year and we did it again in this one.”

After Raider pitcher Mallory Lacy worked out of an eighth inning jam in the international tie-breaker, Anamosa won it in their half of the eighth after North Cedar first-baseman Heather Scott dropped a throw allowing Sara Schultejans to score the game-winner.

“We needed this win in the worst way,” said Stamp. “We had played so poorly on Friday and to come back and beat a very good North Cedar team coming from behind and in thrilling fashion like this will hopefully do us a lot of good as we head down the stretch.”

OLIN — Against some of the toughest competition in the rugged Big East Conference, the Olin softball team seems to always put their best foot forward.

Wednesday, July 5, was another one of those times, Olin was the place and Northeast was the opponent.

“We’ll get down early against these good conference teams but we always seem to come back and make a game of it,” said Lion softball coach Blake Reid after his team gave Northeast all it could handle and more in a narrow 6-4, eight-inning league loss. “Our girls never give up. I’m very happy with the way this team has been gradually coming together this season. I think we could be playing our best softball coming up as the season winds down. I don’t think we’ve peaked yet and look out when we do. We could surprise.”

Olin (4-20, 3-9) trailed 3-0 hosting the Rebels but rallied to tie the game as Kalli Hansen, Roxanne Stolte and Kayla James all crossed the plate in the sixth inning.

After Northeast again took a lead scoring a single run in the top of the seventh, the Lions rallied yet again as James drove home Makenzie Ginn with a huge single in the bottom half.

The Rebels answered with two in the top of the eighth and Olin loaded the bases in the bottom half but failed to push runs across in the two-run setback.

The Warriors scored four first inning runs and appeared to be ready to blow the Lions out once again, but a two-run third inning and big three-run fourth handed Olin a 5-4 lead.

Frederick tripled home James and Liz Groth and Hansen doubled home Frederick in the frame.

Calamus-Wheatland tied the contest with a run in the fourth then posted the game-winner with one out in the bottom of the seventh.

“We made some mistakes in the seventh and it cost us,” said Reid. “But once again, we played a pretty good team pretty tough. We keep getting better and better.”

Olin out-hit the hosts 8-7 led by Hansen with three hits.

ANAMOSA — The circumstances were not exactly what Anamosa baseball coach Byron Schlotterback had hoped for when his team met Monticello on the baseball diamond for a big Tri-Rivers Conference clash Thursday, July 6.

“We were ready and waiting to play Monticello on Monday (July 3) but realized at that time after we were all ready to go that there was a schedule conflict and Monticello wouldn’t be coming as they were getting ready to play a different game that same night,” said Schlotterback. “They thought we were supposed to play us Thursday night. We already had a game scheduled that night and every night that week and had to squeeze it in somewhere so Thursday morning was the best we could do.”

Bright and early with a 10 a.m. first pitch, the Raiders hosted the rival Panthers and in the opener of the doubleheader, were handed a bitter wake-up call with a resounding 13-0, five-inning defeat.

“Sometimes you just have to hand it to the other team and in this case, Monticello hit the ball and hit the ball hard all game long,” said Schlotterback after the Panthers ripped a whopping 18 hits off Anamosa pitchers in the contest.“We can’t make any excuses about having to come back ready to play so early in the morning and worrying about having to play later that night too. Our heads just weren’t in the game in this one and Monticello jumped all over us.”

“All we can do now is learn from this and hopefully become a tougher team because of it,” said Schlotterback. “This wasn’t the way we wanted to end our conference season and especially lose two against our main rivals from Monticello, but it happened and now we need to move on and keep trying to finish the season strong.”

Vondracek had a big game offensively ripping three hits while Embree added two more.

Morning was sensational on the hill allowing eight Monticello hits and only one earned run while striking out a pair of batters.

“Once again he deserved a better fate,” said Schlotterback. “He pitched well enough for us to win this game.”

Triple-header Thursday ended in Bellevue for the Raiders as Anamosa rallied for a much-needed 11-5 victory over the Comets.

“We were completely exhausted in this one,” said Schlotterback. “We looked like we were tired.
We played like we were tired and we were still feeling the sting from the sweep at the hands of Monticello earlier in the day, but even with all of that, the guys pulled things together and found a way to win.”

The Raiders scored in the very first inning when Brandon Gerst singled home Vondracek. Bryce Orcutt then singled in Gerst for the quick 2-0 advantage.

The lead stood until the second when the hosts tallied two runs then added another in the fifth to take a 3-2 lead.

“Our bats were quiet and we didn’t seem much into this game at that point,” said Schlotterback. “But once we got going, everyone got into the action.”

The Raiders added a run in the sixth when Vernon ripped an RBI single driving home Tony Lueken but after the Comets answered with two of their own in the bottom half of the frame, Anamosa was facing a 5-3 deficit heading into their final at-bat.

“Bellevue changed pitchers in the sixth inning for some reason and that really seemed to spark us,” said Schlotterback. “They had been throwing a very slow pitching kid who we just couldn’t seem to time and brought in a kid who threw much harder, but we liked hitting much better.”

Nate Vaughn, Morning and Gerst opened the seventh inning with consecutive hits and Bryce Orcutt, Lueken, Dan Bierbrodt and Vernon all followed with walks as the huge rally was on.

After all was said and done, the Raiders had exploded for eight runs in the pivotal seventh frame as Nate Vaughn scored twice while Morning, Gerst, Orcutt, Lueken, Vernon and Vondracek all crossed the plate.

“Playing 19 innings of baseball in one day is a lot to ask of the guys but they ended it on a big note,” said Schlotterback. “Our bats were pretty cold for 18 of those innings but they came alive in the 19th to save the day.”

Vondracek was huge tallying three hits while Brandon Kula worked the mound and held the Comets to nine hits and five runs while striking out four batters.

The Raider road show continued to Midland Friday, July 7, as Anamosa split a doubleheader with the Eagles.

Embree handcuffed Midland batters in the first game holding the hosts to just two hits in a solid 6-0 shutout.

“Alec was dominant,” said Schlotterback. “Once we finally scored we felt pretty comfortable with the way Alec was throwing.”

Embree and Vernon crossed the plate in the third inning to break a scoreless tie then the Raiders added a run in the fifth, sixth and seventh to pull away.

Embree fanned five overall in his seven innings of work.

Vernon led the offense with a perfect 3-for-3 night and also scored three times.

The second game also saw Anamosa jump out in front quickly as Vaughn, Morning, Lueken and Bierbrodt scored in a four-run first but a seven-run Eagle sixth inning sealed the Raiders’ fate in the 8-6 setback.

“It seemed like we went into cruise control mode after scoring those four first inning runs,” said Schlotterback. “We gave Midland just enough of an opening to come back and they did it with a big sixth inning.”

The Raiders added two more in the fourth when Brady Vaughn and Embree scored giving the visitors a big 6-1 lead at the time.

The week started for Anamosa with a tough 11-5 loss hosting West Liberty.

“Our pitchers walked too many people and West Liberty, who had been struggling hitting the ball all year long, hit it hard against us all game long,” said Schlotterback. “They had a good hitting night and we just have to tip our cap to them. It was one of those nights.”

Trailing 2-0, Anamosa quickly tied the score when Nate Vaughn and Morning scored in the bottom of the first.

Trailing 6-2 in the fourth, Vernon drove home Orcutt with a sacrifice fly and down 11-3 in the seventh, Vondracek and Nate Vaughn scored to trim the deficit to six runs in the defeat.

“They had 12 hits and we gave them seven walks too,” said Schlotterback. “That’s just too much.”

Bowen scored thanks to an Indian error then Bonney crossed the plate on a passed ball and the hosts had a 3-0 advantage.

Camanche answered the Midland rally with one of their own in the top of the sixth scoring two runs before tying things in the seventh and forcing extra frames.

“We didn’t have too many chances to score in this game but we took advantage of the ones we did have,” said Hedden as his team was out-hit by the Indians 7-3 overall.

“What carried us in this one was our pitching. Luke Fowler and Alex Paulsen were outstanding on the mound and kept us in the game long enough for us to finally win it.”

Midland (14-14, 8-4) opened with a 9-0 rout of the rival Lions in the first game as nine hits and nine stolen bases had Olin back on their heels.

“We talked about being aggressive and forcing Olin to make plays and we did that on the base paths all game long,” said Block.

“ What made me even happier was us getting our bats going against one of the best pitchers in the Big East Conference in Olin’s Makenzie Ginn. She held us in check the first time we played them but this time we were able to bust out and hit the ball all over the place.”

The Eagles wasted very little time in getting going scoring four first inning runs as Amanda Hansen, Erika Lineburg, Caitlin Bisinger and Ashley Coon all crossed the plate in a frame that set the tone for the contest.

Eight different girls had hits,” said Block. “It was nice to see that kind of production from up and down the line-up.”

Sammy Reid drove home Emily Kleinsmith in the second inning with a squeeze bunt before Aubrey Walters drilled the ball to the left field fence in the fourth that plated Kleinsmith and Reid.