PCM softball splits two games at EBF tournament

Jun. 13—EDDYVILLE — Joslin Briles crushed her fourth homer of the season, Riley DeVore went deep for the first time and Lark Drake, Riley Johannes and Belle Hudnut all finished with two doubles as PCM's softball team defeated Mid-Prairie 10-4 at the EBF Tournament on Saturday.

The Mustangs went 1-1 on the day as they also lost 3-0 to Class 1A No. 9 Sigourney.

PCM cranked out 13 hits in the win over Mid-Prairie and that helped it overcome five errors in the field. M-P had four hits and two errors.

"It was a good way to start our at day at EBF," PCM softball coach Shaun Hudnut said. "We hit the ball hard and had a lot of extra-base hits."

Mid-Prairie (2-12) scored first but PCM plated two in the second, four in the third, one in the fourth and three in the sixth to pull away.

Drake and Johannes both had three hits and laced two doubles. Drake also scored three runs, walked once and stole a base and Johannes scored two runs and tallied four RBIs.

Johannes is now batting .458 with 17 RBIs and her 11 doubles ranks first in 3A.

Briles hit the homer and finished with two hits, two runs and two RBIs and Hudnut finished with two hits, two RBIs and one run. Briles has 18 RBIs this summer.

DeVore's first homer of the season was her first varsity blast. Sidney Shaver also had one hit and scored one run.

"That was fun to see. I had to tell her to slow down as she rounded second so she could enjoy the moment," Coach Hudnut said about DeVore's homer.

Paige Steenhoek finished with one hit and one RBI at the plate and got the win in the circle. She allowed two earned runs on four hits with one strikeout and two walks in six innings. She's now 7-2 on the season.

Against the state-ranked Savages (9-6), PCM was held to three hits and committed four errors. Sigourney led 2-0 after one inning and added one more run in the fourth.

Hudnut, Steenhoek and RaeAnn Duinink had the hits, Shaver walked twice, Briles walked once and Johannes was hit by a pitch.

"We ran into a tough pitcher from Sigourney. Our at-bats started to look better later in the game, but still figuring out how to adjust to velocity," Coach Hudnut said. "We had two innings where we had a good opportunity to score and just weren't able to get a run across."

PCM had the bases loaded with no outs in the fourth and runners on first and third with two outs in the fifth but could not score.

DeVore (1-3) took the loss in the circle despite only allowing three runs — one earned — on seven hits with five strikeouts and one walk.

"Riley DeVore pitched a great game," Coach Hudnut said. "She kept Sigourney off-balance with her changeup and located her fastball and drop well."

PCM takes an 8-8 record into next week's action. The Mustangs were 5-15 last season.