Forest City 7
Clear Lake 6
With a fourth straight loss, the Clear Lake Lion softball team fell to 8-6 after a close 7-6 battle with the Forest City Indians who improved to 9-5 on the year.
The Lions were playing catchup from the beginning after allowing four runs to the Indians in the first inning.
The Lions scored their first run in the top of the third, but Forest City matched the run. The same was true in the sixth as both teams held the gap with two runs each.
In a final comeback attempt, the Lions scored three runs to make the score 7-6 but the Indian defense pulled through and Forest City ended up on top.
In 25 at-bats the Indians saw seven runs off five hits that included three singles, a double and one triple along with six RBI. The Indians were walked four times.
“I thought we just didn’t come out ready to play this game,” said Clear Lake head coach Seth Thompson. “Despite an awesome rally in the last inning, we just came up one run short against a Forest City team that has been having a great season.”
Humboldt 10
Clear Lake 3
The Lion girls suffered another loss in a string of losses on Wednesday, June 19 to the Humboldt Wildcats.
Starting off with one run, the wind was taken from the Lion sails as the Wildcats scored four to go ahead.
It was another two runs in the bottom of the second for the Wildcats as well to lead the Lions 6-1.
By the fifth inning, the Lions scored only two while the Wildcats scored four to lead 10-3 which proved to be the difference.
The Lions scored their three runs off five hits and had two home runs on the night, one by Alivia Paine and the other by Taylor Schwenn, but that wasn’t enough to push them past the hard hitting Wildcat bats.
Jezzie Thompson was back in the circle for the Lions allowing 10 runs off eight hits with seven walks, three hit-by-pitch and four strike outs.
“It is always very difficult to get a win at Humboldt and they had a great game both offensively and defensively to get a well-deserved win,” said coach Thompson. “We managed to hit two home runs, but unfortunately, just couldn’t string enough hits together to get many more runs across.”
Newman Catholic 10
Clear Lake 7
In a game that showed the tenacity and strength of the Clear Lake Lion softball team, the Lions fell behind to the Newman Catholic Knights 10-0 in three innings before staging an impressive comeback that just fell short after seven innings.
The Knights scored three in the first, five in the second and two in the third to lead 10-0.
In varsity softball, a 12-run differential will end the game after three innings or 10-run differential after five.
The Lions extended the game against the Knights with a run scored in the bottom of the third to make the differential nine runs.
The Lions would hold the Knights runless for the remainder of the night and while scoring six more runs themselves, including a four-run fifth inning, the Lions fell just short but excited the crowd with the possibility that this young team holds.
Clear Lake had seven runs off seven hits with one triple (by Jezzie Thompson), two doubles (both by Taylor Schwenn) and four singles.
Thompson, Paine and Taylor Bedford each had RBI in the contest as well.
Makyla Johnson took up pitching duties for the Lions, allowing 10 runs off 12 hits and struck out one.
“Newman is a great team having a terrific season and ranked in their class and they did a great job of applying pressure to us early in the game to get 10 early runs,” said coach Thompson. “I couldn’t be more proud of our girls for how they battled back after being down so much early against a great team and losing five previous games in a row. It is unfortunate we had to endure a six-game losing streak, but I think we learned some things as players and coaches that will help us down the road, not just this year, but in years to come about how to better prepare ourselves for games.”
Clear Lake 17
C-G-D 1
Clear Lake snapped a six-game losing streak with a major win over the Clarion-Goldfield-Dows Cowgirls to end the week after scoring 17 runs in four innings and allowing only one.
Starting off strong, the Lions put four runs across the plate in the top of the first, before adding three in the second and trading runs in the third.
It was the fourth inning that proved to be the Cowgirls undoing as the Lions scored nine runs to put the game away.
The Lions scored their 17 runs off 15 hits that including a Madi Ott home run that put three runs on the board.
With 10 RBI recorded, Ott with her three and Taylor Schwenn with three the two led the Lion batters.
Schwenn recorded one run off two hits and had two doubles in the win. The Lions stole seven bases against the Cowgirls.
Thompson was back in the circle after her rest and allowed one run off two hits and struck out four batters.
This win felt really good after a rough six-game losing streak,” said coach Thompson. “Our entire lineup had great at-bats and collectively we had 17-hits as a team. Ott capped off an amazing week at the plate with her first varsity home run and finished the week 8-14 with four extra base hits. Jezzie [Thompson] pitched much better with her legs finally under her.”
Clear Lake 4
Webster City 2
The Clear Lake Lion girls hosted the 13-7 Webster City Lynx in an NCC showdown to start off the last week of June. The Lynx sat at 9-1 in the conference, sitting comfortably behind St. Edmond who is currently first.
The Lynx came to play and with a slow start by the Lions it looked as if the Clear Lake squad was set to take a loss, but finding grit and a little toughness, the Lion girls pulled out a win.
The Lynx scored two runs early in the contest in the top of the second inning off a couple of Lion fielding miscues and errors.
The Lion bats struggled to get going but it didn’t break the girls spirit.
Getting things together in the field and finding the home plate umpires strike zone, the Lions held the Lynx off the board to trail 2-0 throughout the game until the bottom of the sixth where a four-run inning elevated the Lions over Webster City.
The victory put the Lions at 10-8 on the season and 7-3 in the North Central Conference. Webster City still sits in second but now has two losses in the conference. St. Edmond still leads with a sterling record of 10-0 in the NCC and 17-5 overall.
