The Pella baseball team made a non-conference contest with Saydel a short evening at the diamond in a 10-0 five-inning win, while the Lady Dutch softball team nearly dug themselves out of an early hole against No. 5 in 3A Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont Thursday.

In the midst of seven games in five days, the Pella baseball team matched a four-run first inning they started with Tuesday against South Tama when they were last outside the Little Hawkeye Conference. But instead of stalling, the green and white offense kept the pressure up and forced the mercy-rule ending before the 15th out could be recorded.

Ryan Mace was 2-for-2 with 3 runs batted in, with Jason Knox and Mason Wittmer also getting a pair of hits each. Keegan Hansen was strong in his 2nd start, allowing just four Eagles baserunners in five innings, with five Ks on his ledger.

Pella is now 10-3 and has an important conference twin-bill at Grinnell as two of the top four teams in the league test their strong pitching groups against each other.

In a week that opened with the Lady Dutch softball team stuck in an early season losing streak, the girls did not back down against the ranked Rockets on the road, nearly completing a major upset and comeback in their 12-10 loss. Much like the rest of the schedule this week, Pella fell behind early, this time by a 10-2 margin after the first six outs were tallied on both sides. But the Lady Dutch kept chipping away, scoring in six of the game’s seven innings, including three runs in the top of the 7th, but they were were ultimately set down before the comeback was completed.

The Lady Dutch will be trying to find the solution to a 12-game losing streak this evening when they join the boys in Grinnell for two league games.