A lengthy winning streak won’t end anytime soon if opponents can’t find a way to score against the LeMars softball team. The Bulldogs are 19-0 on the season and they have already posted 14 shutouts.

LeMars coach Doug Heidebrink says they’ve played some tough teams like Sioux City Heelan and he felt if they could come out of that early schedule at .500, he’d be happy.

Senior Molly Renken has done most of the work on the mound and has given up only four runs in more than 90 innings of work. “She is left handed, which makes it tough for batters, because it comes in different, they are used to seeing it right handed,” Heidebrink says. He says Renken’s curveball and screwball act differently than what batters are used to.

Heidebrink hopes they can build momentum as the regular season enters its final three weeks as he says they are playing well together and get along well. Le Mars was ranked fourth in the latest class 4A poll and visits Storm Lake on Wednesday night.

A lengthy winning streak has moved Lynnville-Sully into the number-7 spot in class 1A in the latest high school softball ranking. The Hawks have won 13 straight games and coach Stacy Alberts credits team chemistry as one of the biggest factors.

“This is just a pretty tight-knit group, they get along well, they work together well, you can see their synergies on the field and off the field too,” Alberts says.

Sophomore Madison Rasmussen is 14-3 on the mound and also leads the team in hitting with a .537 average. Rasmussen leads off and Alberts says she finds ways to get on base and they find a way to get her around.

The winning streak will be on the Line this evening when Lynnville Sully plays North Mahaska. The teams met in the season opener and Lynnville-Sully came away with a 1-0 win. Alberts says they always have a great game with North Mahaska, no matter what the conference standings are.

A top-ten softball matchup is on the docket tonight in North Central Conference play as the Iowa Falls-Alden Cadets travel to play Fort Dodge St. Edmond. Steve Bahr’s IF-A team is 8-3 and rated 8th in Class 3A. Iowa Falls-Alden has enjoyed a power surge of late, scoring 45 runs in their last three games.

A couple of players have five home runs and Bahr says they are hitting well throughout the lineup with some of the players at the bottom of the lineup hitting homers. Plenty of the success can also be credited to IF-A’s pair of pitchers.

Lindsay Barnhart is 5-3 so far in her final year as a Cadet, and sophomore Brittany Fisher is no longer just a prospect herself. Bahr says she is 3-0 and has helped them out in some tournaments so far this year, and he expects good things from her in the future.

Fort Dodge St. Edmond is on the schedule for tonight, as the Gaels bring in the #6 ranking in 2A. St. Edmond is 10-2, with a four-game winning streak on the line. One of their two losses came against Iowa Falls-Alden in a 5-4 final last Monday night.

By Austin Draude KLMJ Hampton

The West Burlington/Notre Dame softball team has enjoyed spending the past week as the state’s top ranked team in class 3A. The Falcons earned their first top ranking in the program’s history a week ago after jumping out to a 10-0 start.

West Burlington/Notre Dame coach David Oleson says they talked about what the ranking means and how they should respond, and what happens if they have a loss. That loss came, and they responded with two wins.

He says he felt the program had reached a point where it could attain a top ranking. The Falcons made it to the state tournament two years ago. They start six sophomores and Oleson says they have great pitching and he thought this might be the year where they topped the rankings.

Oleson says a lot of hard work has led to the improvement in the program and he is glad to see it pay off. He says there are a lot of ASA dads who work with the girls in the offseason to try and get accomplished what is needed.

Oleson says it they hang onto the top ranking it will come against a demanding schedule that includes a doubleheader with Muscatine and some tournaments before regionals.

The Falcons are 14-1 on the season heading into a game this evening against Van Buren.

They did not make it back to the national tournament but it was a successful season number two for the Des Moines Area Community College softball team. Coach Bob Ligouri’s team finished 38-9 on the season despite a battle against the elements that saw them get 19 games postponed by weather.

Ligouri says the team had a total of 9 outdoor practices on a regular outdoor field, otherwise they practiced indoors or in a parking lot. He says that made it tough on the development of players, so they feel fortunate to have the year that they did.

After making it to the national tournament as a first year program the Bears ended this past season with a loss in the Region 11 championship game. Ligouri says he knew they would have success because of the administration and says he felt if they did what they were capable of doing they should be able to compete.

Ryan Wendt, KWBG, Boone

It has been four years since a senior on the softball team at Luther College has made it to commencement. The four seniors on this years squad will be missing graduation ceremonies when the Norse take part in the NCAA division three championship tournament in Eau Claire, Wisconsin beginning Friday.

The Norse advanced by rolling through a regional in Whitewater, Wisconsin last weekend. Luther College coach Renae Hartl says they had a great trip and thought the opener against Carthage was going to be one of their toughest games and it was. She says her team is trying to mix in practice with final exams.

Hartl says the seniors on the team have been to the national championship every year during their Luther career. She says there’s not a lot of players who can say they have been a part of four trophy teams and this year they want to bring home a bigger trophy.

Luther opens the eight-team double elimination tournament on Friday with a first round game against Anderson of Indiana.