Cardinals continue to see improvement

Despite going 0-3 over their last three games, the Cromwell-Wright softball team has been impressive this year with a 7-7 record as of Monday. It's been years since they've seen that kind of success.

Last week the Cards fell to South Ridge, Chisholm and Barnum, but they are continuing to build a better program.

"The last part of our schedule is against some very strong teams," said Cards coach Kari Olesiak. "A majority are teams ranking No. 1 or 2 in their sections. They are teams that can really take advantage of any error we make defensively, and have stifled our hitting."

Most of the innings in the pitching department have fallen on senior thrower Elisabeth Kachinske, but the offense has come from younger talent in the lineup.

"Clearly, our scores show that our inability to get hits throughout our entire lineup has hurt us," said Olesiak. "Yet, it has been our younger players, throughout the entire season, who are proving to be the strongest part of our batting order. Larissa Homstad is a seventh-grader, Vaida Blomquist is in eighth, and Jill Anderson is a ninth-grader."

Anderson had a two-hit effort against Chisholm; Blomquist has gotten a hit in each of the last three games; and Homstad has hit in back-to-back games.

"Our pitching, however, has been a consistent strength for the team," Olesiak said. "Between Elisabeth, a senior, and Jill, a ninth-grader, they keep us competitive with those higher-seeded teams."

Key for the Cards in playoffs will be getting away from the defensive miscues that have plagued them as of late.

"It's usually some fundamental defensive errors late in the innings that eventually has the game get away from us," Olesiak said. "The good thing about our tough schedule is that it is making us work on those areas in practice and see the things we need to improve on as we go into playoffs. I am optimistic that this will only increase our level of play as the season winds down."

If the season ended today, the Cards would be the No. 5 seed in the section and would travel down Highway 210 to Carlton and play the Bulldogs.

There's no telling how that game would end.

"We were unable to play Carlton early in our schedule due to them quarantining, and were never able to find any mutual open dates to reschedule with them," Olesiak said.