Iowa Mennonite School softball coach Ron Swartzendruber came out of last week feeling “pleased” with his squad, despite four losses.

IMS opened the week by giving Columbus Junction a run for their money at Columbus, falling only 5-0 last Tuesday.

“We were 12-runned by them the first time at our place,” he said. “We did in that game what we are trying to do in the second half of the season… improve on our first half results.”

Danville sent IMS to back-to-back losses last Wednesday in a doubleheader at Danville. The Bruinettes won game one 10-4 and game two 11-4.

“We struggled defensively at Danville after having only one error in the Columbus and Highland games combined,” Swartzendruber said. “We committed seven errors in the opener, but we settled down early in game two and were only down 3-2 into the fifth.

“We ran into our game one problems later in the second game,” he added.

Last Thursday, Lone Tree sent IMS to an 11-1 loss at home.

“The girls seemed tired in that game,” Swartzendruber said. “We didn’t have focus.”

IMS opened this week with trips to Pekin of Packwood and Winfield-Mount Union for junior varsity-varsity doubleheaders on Monday and Tuesday.

JV

The Maroon and Black junior varsity split their two games last week. They defeated Lone Tree 6-5 and fell to Columbus 6-2.

“The girls on the junior varsity level are beginning to see the dividends of playing exclusive freshman-sophomore ball,” Swartzendruber said. “They are playing well together and getting good experience.”