With the regular season all but over with for both Pella and Knoxville’s softball teams, the two schools will at least partly turn their focus to their Class 4A first round match-up against one another on Thursday. The Lady Dutch won the first game of the season series 11 – 5 in early June, and then split in a doubleheader over a week ago. Pella coach, Krista DeMeulenaere says that Knoxville has been playing great softball of late, and so she expects nothing but the best when they clash in the postseason on Thursday. The Lady Dutch head coach tells KNIA/KRLS Sports that Knoxville’s girls have improved all-around in second half of the season and that the Panthers are coming to the field playing with confidence and with the mindset that they are going to win each game. Both schools have road games tonight to close out their conference and regular season schedule; Pella will be at Oskaloosa and Knoxville heads to Grinnell.