This season, the Newton softball team has been doing things no Cardinal softball team has done since 2018, and they hope to match one more accomplishment of that prior team. That goal is to make it to the State Softball championships in Fort Dodge. Head coach Kory Leiker says there’s already three things this year’s team has in common with the players from eight years ago. The latest commonality is the Cardinals have a bye in the opening round of postseason play in Class 3A Region 2.
“We haven’t had that since 2018. We haven’t been ranked since 2018. We haven’t had a winning season since 2018. So the next one to check off from 2018 is to go to Fort Dodge. But one game at a time, and we will go from there. But we got a good shot.”
In 2018, Newton was ranked #10 and defeated #11 Cedar Rapids Xavier 1-0 in a championship quarterfinal game, before losing 9-8 in the semifinals to #2 ADM. This season, Newton is ranked #14 with a 20-13 record and will play at home Saturday at 7:00 p.m. against the winner of tonight’s regional quarterfinal game in Gilbert between the 13-16 Tigers and 9-19 Nevada.
