Panthers trip Dodgers 7-5 in opener

Iowa-Grant used a pitching combination of Bentley Cutts and Lily Petit to outlast Dodgeville 7-5 in a non-conference softball opener for both teams Tuesday.

Petit worked the first three innings with Cutts finishing the final four.

BreAnn Kohlenberg and Faith Kite homered for the Panthers.

There were no stats available for the game.

Dodgeville coach Gene Van Dyck had this to say about the game.

“I think that we played fairly well considering that we’d only had two outside practices prior to the game,” the coach said.  “Not asking for symphony as we’re probably not much different than most all of the teams.” 

“Iowa Grant proved to be a good opponent with very good pitching.  Still though we scored five runs and had a chance to tie or win the game in the 7th.  We pretty well made the standard defensive plays and a couple of really good plays but there were a couple of opportunities to make really special plays and we weren’t able to do it,” Van Dyck said.  “If we would have made those plays, we’d have won the game but we didn’t.  They were the type of plays that I believe this team will make a little later on”.  

“We showed some of the power that we’ll have this year with home runs by Olivia Forsyth and Ava Lord and Rylee Forsyth’s hit right into the teeth of the wind that went off the fence for a double.  Ryleigh Grunenwald and Lily Weigel both had multiple hit games.”  

“Maggie White pitched a complete game but was up and down with her control issuing too many walks.  This will improve as the year goes along.  I call this ball game the “Queen for a Day” game as it doesn’t look good for any more games in the near future.”