Dordt Softball ready for GPAC Tournament

SIOUX CENTER, Iowa (KCAU) – The Dordt Defenders are one of our three local teams vying for the conference title. It’s been an up-and-down season for the Sioux Center crew, but persistence has kept the team among the top four in the GPAC standings.

Making its second consecutive GPAC tournament trip, Dordt has either won or split 9 of its 11 conference sets.

The team has a veteran presence, but it’s the Defenders’ youth shining this season. Freshman pitcher and utility Chloe Kruez has notched 48 strikeouts to go along with a .355 batting average.

Dordt has created a correlation between strong pitching and victories, building into a team based on bouncing back with hopes of making noise in the conference tournament.

“We are always going to be in the ball game. One of those things where collectively we don’t seem to make a ton of mistakes and we really have put all aspects of the game together when we’ve needed to.” Dordt head coach Jeff Zomer said.

“We’ve kind of had a mantra of this word “fight” all season where if something bad happens in game one or we’re down in game one or lost game one that we fight back.” Dordt grad student infielder Emma Groen added.

“I think this team has a short memory. We can forget the past really quickly so if we’re out the first time then we’ll come back the second time. Coming into conference I hope we can do that.” Dordt freshman pitcher/utility Chloe Kreuz mentioned.

3 seed Dordt takes on #6 seed Jamestown in the Midland bracket of the GPAC quarterfinals tomorrow. That game has been moved to the ASB Dome in Sioux Center due to the impending weather, first pitch slated for 1:15pm.

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