The Pella Christian softball team ended their 10-game losing streak Friday night with a 14-8 and 8-5 doubleheader sweep of Pella heard live on the KRLS3 stream at KNIAKRLS.com and on the Pella Dutch Live YouTube channel.

After two scoreless frames, the Eagles got the scoring started with an Emri Agre three-run home run in the top of the third inning. The Dutch responded with an Ava Curry two-RBI single in the bottom of the frame to pull within one. Pella Christian answered by batting around in the fourth inning, plating six runs on four hits, two walks and two errors. The back and forth continued in the bottom of fourth, as Pella scored four runs on four hits and a walk to cut the Eagles lead to 9-6. The Dutch further cut their deficit on a Payton Lyons two-run homer in the fifth inning, but Pella Christian plated five more runs in the seventh inning to win game one. Emma Eekhoff got the complete game win for the Eagles, while Saige De Jong suffered the loss for Pella. 

Pella Christian carried the momentum of the opening game win into the nightcap of the twinbill, scoring four runs in the top of the first inning on five hits, two walks and two errors. The Eagles grew the lead to 5-0 in the second inning when Emri Agre scored on a Claire Westerkamp single, and then 6-0 in the fourth inning as Agre scored on an Eekhoff single. Pella got their first run of the second game in the bottom of the fourth on a Katie Scheckel solo homer. The Eagles would score a run in each of the fifth and sixth innings, while the Dutch added two runs in the fifth and a run in each of the sixth and seventh innings, but Pella Christian would hold on for the sweep. Maddy Van Zee earned the complete game win in the circle for the Eagles, while Avery Parks took the loss for Pella.

The Eagles snapped a big losing streak to improve to 6-11 on the season and 2-6 in the Little Hawkeye Conference, and head coach Todd Verwers said it was a big confidence boost that will hopefully lead to more success heading into a tough week.

“It’s a quick season, but it can be a long season. So, when you go through 10 losses and then all of a sudden you play well, and you play good enough to get a couple wins on a night it makes you feel pretty good and then you try to see if you can maybe roll off that. 

Pella dropped to 5-11 overall and 1-7 in the league, and head coach Katie Gravert said the message to her squad was simply to use the losses as a teachable moment. 

“Honestly, it was just to learn from some of our mistakes and take the good and move on to Monday.”

The Eagles are back in action today at the Webster City Tournament, with play beginning at 11 a.m., while the Dutch are off until traveling to Class 3A #15 ranked Grinnell on Monday.