Kirkwood Softball

Hansen swats 2 homers as Eagles sweep

A member of the Kirkwood softball team was positioned behind the outfield fence Friday afternoon when Maddie Hansen took batting practice with the Eagles.

The unnamed player kept extremely busy, chasing countless home runs as  Hansen swatted a series of long fly balls over the padded barrier in left field, left-center and center.

Hansen carried her sweet swing into Saturday's doubleheader against Southwestern Community College as the Eagles swept the twinbill, 6-2 and 12-2, in conference action.

Hansen, an All-American catcher, belted two homers and drove in four runs in the doubleheader as Kirkwood raised its records to 33-2 overall and 11-1 in the league.

Hansen is hitting .529 with 12 homers and 59 RBIs this season. She leads Kirkwood in all three departments and ranks first in the nation in RBIs, fourth in home runs and 11th in batting average.

The Cedar Rapids Jefferson grad is getting plenty of competition for the team lead in all three departments, but right now she's on top of  the pack on the power-hitting club.

Read more...

Kinnaird gets her K's for Eagles

Lexi Kinnaird does not want to jinx herself by peeking at the national stats for junior college pitchers, but she'd certainly like the numbers if she took a look.

The Kirkwood sophomore leads all NJCAA Division II hurlers by a wide margin in strikeouts with 154 K's in 100 innings and she ranks second in the country with 15 wins.

They do not keep a stat for strikeout-to-walk ratio, but if they did Kinnaird would lead that category as well. Remarkably, she's walked only seven batters in 100 innings, an average of one pass every 14  frames.

Kinnaird (15-2, 1.61 ERA) showed pinpoint control again Thursday as the second-ranked Eagles rallied to top Southeastern Community College, 4-2, in the first game of a doubleheader at Kirkwood.

The Eagles (31-2) also rallied for an 8-4 victory in the nightcap.

Kinnaird fanned eight batters and did not walk a soul in the 4-2 verdict in Game 1 for Coach Joe Yegge's club.

Kinnaird struck out 163 batters and walked 43 in 160 innings last year, so she's well ahead of that pace this season. Her control was good last year, but now it's fantastic.

She said she's not doing anything different this year, but the numbers have been phenomenal.

"It's really something that Yegge has pushed from the beginning, pounding the zone and getting ahead early," she said. "So I think that's been my thought process for every at-bat.

"That's really helped me a lot this year, but nothing special."

Read more...

No. 2 Eagles score 49 runs in twinbill

IOWA FALLS - The second-ranked Kirkwood softball team overpowered Ellsworth, 19-0 and 30-2, in an ICCAC conference doubleheader in Iowa Falls Wednesday.

The Eagles scored 49 runs, collected 47 hits and belted five home runs in 10 innings.

Kirkwood raised its records to 29-2 overall and 9-1 in the league. Ellsworth fell to 7-20 overall and 1-11 in the league.

Just about all the Eagles participated in the onslaught. Taylor Nearad went 8-for-10 with seven RBIs to top the charts, but she was hardly alone.

Morgan Frost went 7-for-8 with three RBIs. Monika Bevans was 5-for-9 with six RBIs. Maddie Hansen was 4-for-8 with six RBIs. Megan Kublik and Angie McBeain were 4-for-6 with five RBIs.

Lexi Ferrari was 4-for-7 with three RBIs.DoniRae Mayhew and Audra Bridenstine had four RBIs.

Nearad, Bevans, Hansen, McBeain and Mayhew hit home runs. Nearad and Mayhew have 10 homers this season. Hansen has nine homers, McBeain eight and Bevans five.

Lexi Kinnaird (14-2, 1.58 ERA) and Mayhew (4-0, 2.45 ERA) were the winning pitchers. Kinnaird tossed a one-hit shutout with 12 strikeouts in the 19-0 victory in the opener.

GAME 1

Kirkwood    501 49 - 19 23 0
Ellsworth   000 00 - 0 1 0

W - Kinnaird. L - Brady.

GAME 2

Kirkwood    90(11) (10)0 - 30 24 1
Ellsworth   011 00 - 2 7 4

W - Mayhew. L - Kramer.

No. 2 Eagles split with Iowa Lakes

ESTHERVILLE - The Kirkwood Eagles committed five errors Sunday and lost the first game of their doubleheader against Iowa Lakes, 7-5, in conference action in Estherville.

The second-ranked Eagles bounced back with a 12-0 victory in the nightcap on a one-hitter by Angie McBeain.

Kirkwood (27-2, 7-1) rallied from a 5-3 deficit and tied the opener, 5-5, with two runs in the top of the sixth, but the 17th-ranked Lakers (20-7, 7-3) scored twice in the bottom of the sixth and held on for the victory against Kirkwood ace Lexi Kinnaird.

Taylor Nearad hit home runs in both games for Kirkwood, giving her nine round-trippers this season. DoniRae Mayhew also belted her ninth homer for the Eagles in the doubleheader.

Maddie Hansen went 4-for-4 for the Eagles in the 7-5 setback. Lexi Ferrari was 3-for-4. Nearad was 2-for-3 and drove in three runs. Morgan Frost had two RBIs in the opener.

Kinnaird (13-2, 1.67 ERA)  pitched a complete game for the Eagles. She was touched for nine hits and five earned runs.

Read more...