ANAMOSA — What appeared was going to be a battle going down to the final out in a scoreless contest hosting No. 15 ranked Western Dubuque Thursday, July 19, in a pressure-filled class 3A regional quarter-final contest, instead turned into a softball statement game for Anamosa in a huge 4-0 victory.

“We scouted Western Dubuque and had talked to some people and felt after seeing them and hearing the information we gathered that we were just as good as a softball team as they were,” said Raider softball coach Rick Delagardelle. “Western Dubuque may be the 15th-ranked team in the state in class 3A and obviously some people think they are a pretty good softball team too, but we knew coming in we could win and send a message to the rest of the state and the WaMaC that we can compete at a high level.”

Anamosa made a serious softball statement breaking a scoreless tie with the Bobcats in the fifth inning cashing in on a pair of Western Dubuque errors to plate a pair of runs.

After the Raiders did it again in the sixth inning scoring twice taking advantage of several Bobcat errors in that frame taking a 4-0 lead, the rest of the state was put on notice that the Anamosa softball program was back among the elite.

“The girls believed they could win this game and that played a big part in us getting this accomplished,” said Delagardelle. “We managed to squeeze across a few runs in the same manner we have most of the year playing some small ball and taking advantage of errors by the other team and just being aggressive on the bases and forcing the defense into making even more mistakes.”

Through the first four innings, Anamosa batters reached base just once when Traci Dirks singled in the second stanza.

It was Dirks who started the rally in the fifth frame when the star senior drove the softball deep into the left field corner that sent Bobcat leftfielder Abby Cook sprinting trying to make a catch.

Anamosa made five errors and were no-hit in a season-ending 7-0 setback at the hands of the Golden Eagles Saturday, July 21.

“I feel bad for the girls after this game,” said Delagardelle.
“For the people who were at that game that hadn’t seen us all year, that was not how we usually play. We usually win with pitching and defense and in this game, our pitching and defense struggled. As well as our bats too.”

Dubuque Wahlert’s Taylor Foley was hit by the first pitch of the game and she worked around to score in the very first inning. The Golden Eagles added three more runs in the second stanza taking advantage of two Raider errors in the frame and after the visitors added two more runs in the third inning, Anamosa was staring at a huge 6-0 deficit.

“This really reminded me of the Monticello game with the tentativeness we played with,” said Delagardelle. “We were tight and didn’t play our normal game. The girls just wanted to win so much that they put too much pressure on themselves.”