By JIM GRIES
Herald sports editor
OSKALOOSA
July 03, 2008 09:10 am
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Directions to Burlington High School Softball Field
In the event Oskaloosa would beat Ottumwa on Saturday, here are the dirctions to the Burlington Softball Field.
Stay on Highway 34 and take Roosevelt Avenue exit and turn right. Follow that to Division Street — businesses include MidwestOne Bank, Arby’s and a Shell gas station. Turn left on to Division Street. It is a long block until turn right on Terrance Drive. Make another right into the first driveway which will get you to a parking lot and the softball field is located behind the Industrial Arts Building.
Oskaloosa and Ottumwa will be playing role reversal when the teams meet Saturday night at Huston Field in a Class 4A regional quarterfinal, beginning at 7 p.m.
Usually, the Bulldogs are the team that is ranked and has the better record.
Not this year.
The Indians are ranked 12th in the latest poll and possess a 25-8 record heading into Thursday night’s makeup game with Grinnell.
Ottumwa, on the other hand is 15-22 and is having its first losing season in school history.
But as in many cases involving rivals, records are meaningless this time of season.
Ottumwa has had Oskaloosa’s number in recent games, winning the last three games — all regional contests — including a 3-1 conquest in the second round last year.
“Nothing is new — it’s the same ole, same ole — Oskaloosa-Ottumwa in regionals,” Oskaloosa coach Jay Harms said. “It’s disappointing from the standpoint we’ve never had the opportunity to host Ottumwa. It’s a tough place to play. We’ve got a nice ball club and our kids will be ready to go.”
The Indians will be playing almost right up to the regional encounter as they have game all week except Friday which Harms prefers, saying the team will be in game shape heading into Saturday.
“The way this group is, I think we actually play better if we just keep on playing,” Harms said. “I’m kind of happy this year that we don’t have two or three games off until we play (in tournaments). The kids are, right now, pretty confident and feel good about themselves. If we finish strong this week in the conference, we’ll fell good about going against Ottumwa.”
Both teams used three pitchers this year, but only the Oskaloosa trio of juniors Emily Street and Brittany Redlich and sophomore Jennifer Whitehead have winning records.
Street leads the way at 12-4 while Redlich is 9-3 and Whitehead is 4-1 in spot duty.
The Bulldogs’ lone pitcher with a plus-.500 record is freshman Courtney Wagner at 5-3. Sophomore Missy Staloch is 3-5, but is coming off a perfect game against Des Moines North earlier in the week.
Offensively, the Indians are led by senior second baseman Trisha Van Dusseldorp at .378 while junior shortstop Megan Gott is hitting at a .337 clip. She leads the team in home runs along with junior first baseman Sarah Hynick and senior left fielder Sarah Sterner with two apiece. Gott and Sterner top the team in RBI with 19 while Lenox has 18 RBI and sophomore third baseman Ashley Jimenez has driven in 16 runs from her lead-off spot.
Senior Tricia Bix leads Ottumwa in hitting at .355 while seniors McKenzie Cason and Whitney Reber are close behind at .349 and .343.
Cason has driven in the most runs with 19 while Reber has 178 RBI.
Although Ottumwa may be down from years past, Harms is still very worried about the Bulldogs.
“The biggest concern is that the game is at Ottumwa,” he said. “They’re a scary team because they’re not afraid of us. It was like when we played them the years they had the good teams, we tried to stressed to our kids respect them, but don’t be afraid of them. I think they feel the same way about us this year. I’m sure they feel very confident against us because they don’t think we play the competition that they play.
“This is their chance even though they’ve had a down year, a chance to see how far they can go in the tournament. They have nothing to lose. They’re going to be a confident bunch and we’ll have to over and play very, very well against Ottumwa and we can. We’re solid up and down the lineup and it should be an interesting ball game.”
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