Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – As a new coach with a team filled with first-year starters in new positions Barb Lynn expected a few early-season struggles this season in her return to West High.

Lynn wasn’t expecting eight straight losses to open the season or an 8-17 start to the year.

“At the beginning of the season we had a lot of kids in new positions,” Lynn said. “Even the ones that were back weren’t necessarily playing the same positions so it was a transition time and on top of that we had some of the top teams in the conference that we were facing and that was a hard start.”  

The slow start was a bit of a shock for a West High program that averaged just under 30 wins over the past four seasons.

How West High has responded from that start hasn’t been a surprise to anyone.

West High (16-20) has won eight of its last 11 games after splitting a pair of games on the opening day of the 31st Rick Doran Classic at the University of Iowa Softball Complex on Friday.

The Women of Troy opened with a 3-2 win over Davenport North before falling to Benton Community 11-6 in Friday’s finale at Pearl Field.  

“I think part of it is we played the really good teams first and we knew we could play better,” West High sophomore Kiana Hill said. “We are playing more to our potential now. We maybe didn’t do that as much the last game but we’ve played a lot more to our potential.”

Hill had three hits, including a game-tying home run in the third inning, and scored all three West High runs in a 3-2 win over Davenport North (10-23) in the opener on Friday.

Davenport North took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the first inning on a two-run home run by Molly Freeman.

Hill tied the score with a home run of her own, a lined shot in the third inning that upped her team-leading season total to six.

“It felt really good, I didn’t think I could hit a home run on the Iowa field and it just happened,” Hill said. “I think she kind of messed up and threw it over the plate. I was able to take advantage and hit it hard.”

Hill gave West High a 3-2 lead in the fifth with some help from teammate Kate Sehr.

Hill led off the inning with a single, stole second and scored on an RBI double by Sehr.

“We’ve focused on getting better each day and coming out and playing hard and I think the last couple of weeks we are finally hitting the ball better as a team all the way through the lineup,” Lynn said. “It’s nice that regardless of who is up right now we are confident.”

The lead was enough for West High starter Eva Burbidge who tossed six consecutive scoreless innings after allowing the two-run homer to Freeman in the first.

West High couldn’t overcome a slow start in its second game of the day.

Benton Community used a five-run second inning to take an early 7-0 lead and led 10-0 before West High got on the board in the bottom of the third.

West High hammered out nine hits in the loss and scored five runs in the final two innings but could get no closer in a game that was ended after five innings by time limit.

Seven different West High players had a hit against Benton Community led by Kyra Stoll and Jaclyn Bakken with two each.

“The positive to walk away with is that we know we are capable of much better defense than that and it was still close enough that if we started hitting the ball a little better earlier or taking advantage of some of the offensive situations that we took ourselves out of it could have been a ball game,” Lynn said of the second game. “Our kids kept playing hard.”

West High will face Class 4A top-ranked Independence and Mount Pleasant on Saturday on the second day of the two-day event.

West High                  101  010  0  –  3  9  0

Davenport North       200  000  0  –  2  6  1

W – Eva Burbidge      L – Cristal Baker  

2B – ICW: Kate Sehr; DN: Lexie Carstens

HR – ICW: Kiahna Hill; DN: Molly Freeman

Benton Community    253  01  –  11  16  0 

West High                  001  32  –   6    9   2

W – Katelyn Buscher              L – Kylie Heisdorffer

2B – BC: Makenna Bonewitz, Grace Martensen

3B – BC: Grace Martensen (2)