Photo by Jeff Yoder | photo gallery

Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Liberty High and West High each entered their inaugural cross-town softball showdown smarting from a doubleheader sweep the night before in Dubuque.

Both teams found a way to get back on track Wednesday splitting a Mississippi Valley Conference Valley Division doubleheader at West High.

Liberty High got a strong outing from sophomore pitcher Kara Maiers in a 10-4 win in the opener and West High used a grand-slam from Kiahna Hill to cap a 10-run third-inning in an 11-2 win in the nightcap.

Both teams snapped four-game losing skids with their wins on Wednesday.

West High (4-8, 2-6 MVC) scored four runs in a pair of losses at Dubuque Wahlert on Tuesday and had more runs in its third-inning outburst in the nightcap (10) than it had in its previous four games combined (9).  

“We’ve faced some really good pitchers, Liberty in game one had excellent pitching, last night in Dubuque we saw excellent pitching,” West High coach Barby Lynn said. “We struggled a little bit both of those pitchers but credit goes to them they are excellent pitchers. It was nice to get some runs in the second game and hopefully we can carry that into tomorrow.”  

Liberty High (5-7, 5-3) ended its own four-game losing skid in the opener after dropping two games at Dubuque Hempstead on Tuesday.

The Lightning let a two-run lead slip away in the seventh inning against 5A No. 14 Hempstead in the opener Tuesday but got back on track behind Maiers in game one on Wednesday.

“We had one that got away from us last night and I told the girls that’s part of the game,” Liberty High coach Jeff Kelley said. “We came back today and played pretty well in the first game.”

The Lightning scored in each of the first four innings of the opener, putting up two runs in the first, third and fourth while building an insurmountable lead.

Addie Schmierer went 4-for-5, Brylee Klosterman went 3-for-4 with three doubles and scored three runs and Tiffany Jones was 3-for-4 with four RBI to lead a 16-hit Liberty High barrage in game one.

Maiers struck out nine in the opener while allowing four runs on four hits. All four West High runs came in the final two innings after Liberty High had built an 8-0 lead.

“It’s typical when you have strikeout pitchers, they throw a lot of pitches and she is running up some high pitch counts and there is always a little question about how is that going to effect their durability down the road and that’s the thing I am most concerned with right now,” Kelley said. “She is throwing hard and changing up her speeds real well and getting a lot of strikeouts I’d just like to see that pitch count down.”

West High bounced back quickly in the nightcap.

The Women of Troy took a 1-0 lead with a run in the second inning and then exploded for 10 runs in the third inning.

Hill provided the big blow with a towering grand slam to left center field that put West High up 11-2.

“I was just trying to make contact and get on base and get some people around,” Hill said. “I knew it was gone right when I hit it. I usually don’t swing at those high pitches but I saw it coming right over the plate.”

Hill finished 3-for-4 with two runs and four RBI as West High set a season-high for runs in the nightcap.

“It was really big for our confidence,” Hill said. “We go into tomorrow feeling like we can take those two games.”

Six different players had hits for West High in game two with sophomore Liv Williams going 2-for-3 with an RBI and freshman Maddie Caylor driving in two runs.

“Offensively if we can get a couple of kids going it seems like everybody else joins in,” Lynn said. “Offense is contagious either way so we just have to be more consistent with it.”

Game 1

Liberty High 212  201  2  –  10  16  1

West High      000  001  3  –   4    4   3

W – Kara Maiers        L – Eva Burbidge

2B – ICL: Brylee Klosterman (3), Miranda Jones 

Game 2

Liberty High  002      000  0  –  2   4   0

West High      01(10) 000  x  –  11  9  2 

W – Ryleigh Mulcahey           L – Kinsley Robertson

HR – ICW: Kiahna Hill

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