The leader of the Adel-DeSoto-Minburn Softball Team praises the four individuals who have pitched well on the mound, which has played a huge role in the 11-game winning streak.

The Tigers have not lost since June 9th, finding a variety of ways to win games, going from 6-5 to a 17-5 overall record. Head Coach Lindsay Stanford knows that a large part of that success is from the work on the mound from freshmen Reese Vande Noord and Chloe Olthoff, plus sophomore Makenna Pitlick, and junior Lauren Hagedorn. She explains that during the 2024 season, ADM relied heavily on Hagedorn, who pitched alongside now-graduated senior Cameran Smith. Stanford is happy to have Vande Noord, Olthoff, Pitlick, and Hagedorn on her team and believes they’ll step up at any moment.

“Kids are going to hit, sometimes (off of) our pitchers and we’re going to play defense behind them. But also now having four (pitchers) that we can put in pretty much at any given time to at least give others rest because we’re playing every single night. And also, I think that helps by being fresh and so I think that’s been a plus for us and just having those opportunities for the girls to get that experience because we needed them to step up to do their part and that’s exactly what they did.”

Stanford is optimistic that with the core of the pitchers being younger, it will bode well in the years to come as they gain more experience. In the 10 starts for Pitlick, she has a 7-3 record with 45 strikeouts, Hagedorn is 6-0 in her starts with 47 strikeouts, Olthoff is 3-2 in five starts with 16 strikeouts, and Vande Noord is 1-0 with 3 strikeouts. ADM’s next game is tomorrow on the road in Carroll for a single contest, starting at 6pm.