The Norwalk softball team kept their conference title hopes alive on Wednesday night, taking both ends of a Little Hawkeye doubleheader against Indianola, heard live on the KNIA3 stream. The Class 4A 2nd-ranked Warriors won the first game 11-1 in four innings, then rallied past the Class 5A No. 15 Indians 6-5 in the night cap. Game two ended on Maddie Gullion’s scratch infield single that scored a hustling Bailey Birmingham from second base.

Norwalk senior Carly Brewer earned her 13th and 14th pitching wins of the year in the circle. She worked all four innings of game one, allowing four hits and striking out seven, and followed Leah Crick in game two with two innings of relief. Brewer escaped a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the top of the seventh to keep the Warriors within a run of Indianola at 5-4.

Nyah Hulbert started the bottom of the inning with a single and Birmingham was nicked by an Ava Tichy pitch. With runners at first and third, Brewer’s sacrifice fly scored Hulbert to tie the game. Sam Gripp relieved Tichy and her first pitch was chopped out to second by Gullion. The ball handcuffed the second baseman on a short hop, allowing Birmingham to score the winning run.

Birmingham scored three times in the night cap and Gullion drove in a pair. Brewer and Gullion had two hits each. The Warriors took a 3-0 lead in the first inning, but Indianola’s bats came alive in the fourth for four runs on six hits. Sully Downey and Tichy hit run-scoring doubles in the inning and Downey added a sac fly in the fifth to make it 5-3. Alexa Guyer, who hit a walk-off homer to beat Norwalk earlier this season, finished 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles in game two. Tessa Gripp, Dana Blake and Downey had two hits each.

The Warriors dominated game one, scoring four runs in the first and seven in the second. Hulbert had two of Norwalk’s seven singles. Cambry Livingston drove in three runs and Gullion added a pair of RBI.

Norwalk improved to 24-3 overall and 13-2 in the Little Hawkeye Conference going into a busy Thursday. The Warriors will finish a suspended game vs. Oskaloosa at 9:00 a.m. today, then travel to Dallas Center-Grimes to face the 4A third-ranked Mustangs at noon. Norwalk trails DC-G by one game in the conference standings.

Indianola is now 13-12 overall and 8-7 in the LHC. The Indians will host Pella Christian on Friday night.