3A No. 7 West Liberty Beats Knights 11-0

 LOWDEN — The North Cedar softball team took an 11-0 loss at home to state ranked West Liberty last Wednesday, July 8. The Comets were ranked No. 7 at the time of the game in Class 3A. The Knights fell to 2-9 with the loss.
Despite the ranking, North Cedar held on tough, keeping the game scoreless through three innings. The Comets scored the first run of the game in the top of the fourth and led 1-0 after four innings. The Comets took control of the game in the top of the fifth inning scoring four runs to lead 5-0. The Comets led 7-0 after two innings and put up four runs in the top of the seventh to extend their lead to 11-0.
 North Cedar had two hits, both from freshman Alyssa Hefflefinger with a single and triple. Hefflefinger took the loss after seven innings of work. She struck out three and walked five.
 Finley Hall and Austyn Crees each had two hits and two RBI’s to lead West LIberty. Sailor Hall was the winning pitcher after working seven innings. She struck out seven and gave up two hits.

Knights Knock Off Mid-Prairie, 2-1
 LOWDEN — The North Cedar Knights picked up their second win of the season with a 2-1 win over Mid-Prairie. The game was called early due to weather. The Knights scored what would be the winning
runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to set the score at 2-1. Mid-Prairie scored the first run of the game in the top of the first inning.
 Kendall Smith got the win with a six inning effort. Smith struck out seven, walked no batters and gave up six Mid-Prairie hits. North Cedar had nine hits in the game with three players with multiple hits. The Knights 3-4-5 hitters in the game - Smith, Carly Meier, and Alyssa Hefflefinger - each had two hits in the game. 

Fourth Ranked Rebels Too Much For Knights
 LOWDEN — The North Cedar softball team struggled against Class 2A No. 4 Northeast last Monday to open their final week of the regular season. The Knights fell 15-1 to the Rebels in a game that ended after three innings.
 Northeast led 4-1 after the first inning and added five runs in the top of the second inning and six runs in the top of the third inning to get to their 15-run game. The Rebels had nine hits to the Knights two hits in the game. North Cedar had eight fielding errors in the game.
 North Cedar had two hits in the game. Kayla Syring had a double and Carly Meier had a single and RBI. Alyssa Hefflefinger was the losing pitcher. She gave up 15 runs on nine hits and struck out two batters.
The Rebels had four players with multi-hit games. Bree Mangelsen had three hits including
a double and drove in two runs for the Rebels. Neveah Hildebrandt, Makenna McDonald, and Valerie Spooner each had two hits. Madiston Kluever was the winning pitcher after three innings of work.