Prairie Softball

Prairie girls take pair from Wahawks

The Cedar Rapids Prairie softball team swept a Mississippi Valley Conference doubleheader from Waterloo West Tuesday night, 6-3 and 7-6, at Prairie.

Halle Lueck went 3-for-3 and scored three runs for the Hawks in the first game. Natalie Halvorson pitched a complete game, allowing six hits with nine strikeouts and no walks.

Gabi Carter went 2-for-4 with a home run and three RBIs for Prairie in the nightcap. Natalie Rumer also socked a home run. Kristen Wahlert was 3-for-4.

Shelby Frederick pitched the first five innings and was credited with the victory in Game 2.

Game 1

Waterloo West    100 011 0 - 3 6 x
Prairie          202 011 0 - 6 7 1

Game 2

Waterloo West    100 021 2 - 6 13 x
Prairie          303 100 0 - 7 11 0

Prairie's young hurlers stop Lions

Shelby Frederick has not attended any classes at Cedar Rapids Prairie yet and barely knows her way around the school.

The eighth grader certainly knows her way around a softball field, however.

Frederick tossed a one-hitter Thursday night as the 10th-ranked Prairie Hawks blanked Linn-Mar, 8-0, in a game that was stopped in the top of the seventh inning after Linn-Mar shortstop Katie Sommer was injured on a freak play.

Natalie Halvorson, just a ninth grader at Prairie, also pitched a strong game as the Hawks took the opener, 7-2.

Frederick will be a freshman at Prairie this fall, but graduated eighth graders are eligible for high school softball and she's making the most of her early opportunity.

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Drahozal stars as Saints sweep Hawks

Pity the softball team that plays Xavier after the Saints have had a few days off.

“We hadn’t played a game since last Wednesday, and we were just anxious to go out and get at it,” Xavier all-stater Erin Drahozal said Tuesday night after her usual stellar performance in a 9-3 and 7-2 sweep of Prairie on the Hawks home field.

She was so itchy to see action that she showed up Monday night to watch Prairie take two from Kennedy. The scouting mission obviously paid off.

On the mound in the opener against Prairie, she had one bad pitch that led to a long three-run homer to left by the normally light-hitting Amanda Stecklein. Otherwise, Drahozal (11-2) pretty much bamboozled the Hawks, especially power hitters Gabi Carter and Natalie Rumer.

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Hawks sweep Cougars with 'small ball'

Prairie second baseman Amanda Stecklein is such an old-school ballplayer that she’s the only one on her team who bats bare-handed without hitting gloves.

And the way the Hawks swept Kennedy 8-1 and 6-1 Monday night suited her style of play to a T.

They won by playing “small ball” that would have made Ty Cobb proud. Even with all those runs, they hardly hit anything out of the infield.

Instead, they capitalized on Cougar errors, aggressive baserunning, bunts, walks and a whole bunch of grounders they beat out for infield hits.

“That’s not the way we usually win,” said Stecklein, who scored four times and knocked in two runs on a pair of ground balls. “But we still made it work. Coach (Joe) Yegge always tells us that if we get the bat on the ball and put it in play, good things will happen.”

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