The Southeast Valley softball team picked up their 11th win (seventh consecutive) of the season in exciting fashion on Thursday night in Harcourt over the Wildcats from West Central Valley. The Jaguars showed grit, determination, and perseverance and saw contributions from the entire lineup in order to bring home the win. 

In a turn of events for the Jags, it would be the Wildcats who would score first, plating three in the second inning, but the Jags managed to cut into that lead, plating one in their half of the second inning. Senior Jordyn Rowly led off the second with a single in the right-center gap and put herself into scoring position after stealing second base. Junior Lauren Eslick would come through for the Jags, effectively trading places with Rowley by smacking a line drive double to the left center gap, unfortunately, Eslick would be left stranded to end the second inning. In the Third, the Wildcats again answered, putting three more runs on the board making their lead 6-1. Again, the Southeast Valley bats responded, plating two more in the bottom half of the third, cutting the Wildcat lead in half. Sophomore Brooke Peterson started the inning this time with a lead-off single to right field Peterson would be moved to second base resulting from an Ellie Nolte hit and would come around to score after junior Chloe Lambert squeezed a single to the right field side. Lambert would turn on the wheels and score the Jaguars’ third run of the game after Jordyn Rowley stepped into the box and beamed a double, again, to the right-center gap. The Jags wouldn’t score again until the fifth inning when the seniors stepped up. Senior lead off batter, Ellie Nolte, started things off with a walk followed by a hard hit single from fellow senior Kenna Scott that landed Nolte on third, putting two runners on for the Jags. Scott would steal second to put two in scoring position for the Jags. Jordyn Rowley would earn her third hit of the night in as many plate appearances hitting her second single of the game, driving in both Nolte and Scott. After five complete innings, the Jags had cut into the Wildcat lead, making it 6-5 in favor of West Central Valley. 

The sixth inning would prove to be wild! In the top half of the inning, the Wildcats offense produced three runs, putting them up 9-5 going into the bottom half. In true Southeast Valley softball fashion, the girls caused chaos in the bottom of the sixth with two outs on the board regaining the lead and eventually sealing the win. Down by four, Lauren Eslick stepped up to the plate and wore a fourth pitch of her at bat to give the Jags a base runner and after successfully stealing second, she would be in scoring position for senior Leilah Olson. Olson would earn her first and most important hit of the night with a line drive double over the left fielder’s head in order to score Eslick from second. Brooke Peterson would keep the party going for the Jags with a single of her own, followed by a walk to Ellie Nolte. Nolte’s walk would load the bases for the Jags. Three runners would be on base, but the Jaguar bats wouldn’t be able to produce another run until Chloe Lambert hit a long SAC-fly to the right fielder in order to plate Kitchen (running for Olson) for the Jags’ seventh run, making the lead just 9-7. Jordyn Rowley would dig in for the fourth time that evening and hit her fourth hit of the night, a double up the middle and over the center fielder’s head. Rowley’s hit would score Brooke Peterson and Ellie Nolte, tying up the game. After a timeout and a conference from the Wildcats, the Jags weren’t done yet. Sophomore Rian Schlief took the bat and produced a single to bring Rowley home. Camryn Lane kept things going, scoring freshman Devon Olson (running for Schlief) from second after successfully stealing second base on wild pitch. Southeast Valley would have two more hits before the inning ended, but no more runs scored. After six complete innings, the Jags regained the lead 12-9, scoring seven runs in their half of the sixth inning. 

The Jaguar defense would need to hold strong to keep the lead and secure the win and they did just that, retiring the first two batters immediately and getting the third and final out of the game on a throw from Camryn Lane to Lauren Eslick to tag out an aggressive Wildcat baserunner. 

Junior Chloe Lambert got the start in the circle, throwing 3 ⅔ innings while allowing just three runs and walking none. Sophomore Rian Schlief took over and threw for 4 ⅓ innings, getting the win in the circle. Combined, Schlief and Lambert faced 35 batters, allowed nine runs and three earned runs. 

After tonight’s win, the Southeast Valley softball team holds an overall record of 11 wins and three losses. The Jags look to add one more to the win column to end an exciting week by traveling to Storm Lake to take on Storm Lake St. Mary’s for a conference matchup on Friday evening starting with the varsity team at six o’clock.