(Fort Dodge) Atlantic and Williamsburg square-off in a third-place game Friday afternoon in the Class 3A State Softball Tournament at Fort Dodge.
Williamsburg starts sophomore pitcher Peyton Driscoll, who sports an E.R.A. of 2.02, with 205 strikeouts and 76 walks.
“Peyton Driscoll is a good pitcher,” said Atlantic Head Coach Terry Hinzmann. “She isn’t overpowering, but she has a lot of movement on the ball, which is one of the things we’re going to have to combat.
“We have to be patient at the plate, the way we approached Anamosa,” said Hinzmann. “Driscoll is a tall girl with a long reach. It may take us a time or two before we get our timing down.”
The Raiders are hitting .322 as a team led by Carly Campbell and Elie Ridgeway.
“Ridgeway has 13 home runs, and we watched Campbell put one in the back of a pickup truck at a tournament earlier this season; she has a lot of power,” said Hinzmann. “They also have a couple of girls at the top of the order who can get the ball down and beat out the throw.”
Coach Hinzmann is talking about Charlotte Wetjen and Makenna Hughes. “They’re fast, and the key is keeping them off the bases and not allow them to steal their way in scoring position for the big hitters in the middle of their order.”
Hinzmann says, “if Olivia Engler can keep the ball moving like she has all year, it will put their speedsters at a disadvantage. If she gets behind in the count, their speed will be a problem for us.”
Coach Hinzmann says the game is going to come down to what most games do this time of year, pitching, and mistakes. “You just can’t make mistakes in Fort Dodge, because they get magnified quickly,” said Hinzmann. “We worked on those things at practice today, and hopefully we can avoid them in what is the final game of the season.”
The Trojans enter the contest with a.351 team batting average. Senior pitcher Olivia Engler is 23-6 on the year, with an E.R.A of 1.47, with a single-season record-setting, 270 strikeouts, and 42 walks, in 181 innings of work.
Whatever the outcome, when the game is over, Coach Hinzmann knows it will sure to be an emotional setting saying goodbye to another group of outstanding seniors, who will don the Atlantic uniform for the final time.
The game starts at 1:00 p.m., and we will have the broadcast on 95.7 FM, and audio streamed on westerniowatoday.com.
