Waukon softball team’s 12-19 season marks the second-most wins in a season in the past nine years, sets variety of records along the way

The Waukon softball team played to a 12-19 overall season record during its 2021 campaign, those 12 wins representing the second-most wins the diamond Tribe has recorded in a season in the past nine summers, second only to a 14-19 effort two seasons ago. The Lady Indians recorded their first wins since that 2019 season, including their first Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) victories in two seasons, as the Tribe diamond dwellers played to a 3-15 result in NEIC competition to finish seventh in this season’s final league standings.

Being led by just a single senior for the second consecutive season, the growth of this season’s overall young squad - fielding as many as eight players who were sophomores or younger for the second straight summer - was evident in not only the 12 wins the Lady Indians recorded this season, but in the fact that they were within a run or two in several games of a complete reversal of that win-loss record. Evidence of that growth came in the fact that the first seven one-run games the softball Tribe played to this season all ended up in the loss column, but as the season progressed, the Indians won three of their final four games that ended up being one-run margins.

“Our girls never gave up, every single game,” Waukon softball coach Melissa Ward said. “Out of our 19 losses, eight of them were by one run and two of them were by two runs. We played good, hard-fought games. We had some girls step up and make great plays/hits this season. Seeing the success these girls had throughout the season brought some confidence to themselves and I hope they take that with them into the off-season and next season.”

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