North Mahaska seemingly ran at will against Colfax-Mingo Wednesday en route to a 11-4 victory. The Warhawks took advantage of 19 opportunities to advance bases. They utilized pass balls, wild pitches and stolen bases to take the additional bases that set up scoring opportunities.
“These are two young teams, and we were able to take advantage of those opportunities,” said NM coach Mark Schroeder. “I was a little concerned when we were tied at 4 but was able to take the lead.”
North Mahaska (3-2) has had trouble holding leads late in the game. They fell to BGM on Tuesday off a two-run homer and have lost a pair of one-run games, so Schroeder’s fear was real.
NM had jumped out to a 2-0 lead after one period only to see the visiting Tigerhawks score two in the top of the third. A leadoff triple by Madeline Doonan and. Walk, two stolen bases and a pass ball put the Warhawks up again 4-2. Two errors in the top of the fourth allowed CM to close the gap to 4-3. They would tie the game with a leadoff double, a wild pitch and a groundout.
Kaylia Shipman, Regan Grewe and Lydia Howell hit back-to-back-to-back singles to get the scoring barrage going. By the end of the bottom of the fifth NM led 8-4 and never looked back. Colfax-Mingo (2-4) had one runner reach third base, but the Warhawks defense stalled the opportunity.
Shipman scored four times for North Mahaska with a single and double. Kayla Readshaw hit two singles with two RBI and Grewe had two RBI with a single.
Jocelyn Pinkerton earned the win from the circle going the distance. She gave up four runs on five hist and three walks. She struck out four.
Brianna Freerksen took the loss pitching in relief. She allowed seven runs on five hits, four walks with two strikeouts.
Brooklyn Yanske started yielding four runs on five hits, a walk and three strikeouts.
North Mahaska goes to Iowa Valley on Friday and plays a pair of games at the Oskaloosa tournament on Saturday.