The No. 4 ADM softball team is gearing up for postseason play with just three regular season games remaining over the next two days: a doubleheader Monday night at Ballard and the regular season finale Tuesday night in Adel against top-ranked Indianola.
The Tigers will then enjoy an extended break thanks to a first-round bye in the regional playoffs, their playoff opener coming in the second round at 7 p.m. Saturday night against the winner of Lewis Central and Carroll. That gives head coach Rick Dillinger a chance to rest his players and work on a multitude of “special” plays.
The veteran coach played it close to the vest when asked about what plays in particular the Tigers have been and will continue to be working on, in an effort to maintain the element of surprise against postseason opponents. Some things ADM has shown include the squeeze bunt, which was executed to perfection by junior catcher Shannon Jones in Thursday night’s 8-0 win over Grandview Christian, and a pickle play in which a hitter that walks with a runner on third breaks for second in an effort to confuse the defense and score the runner from third.
Also on Thursday, ADM executed a slug bunt in which Montana Popp lined a hard-hit ball through the legs of a drawn-in second basemen that was ruled an error but could have gone either way.
In short, expect the Tigers to put on even more unusual plays come the postseason.
“We did a slug bunt type of thing with Montana Popp [Thursday night] that she hit the ball very hard at second base, showing the bat then coming back and actually shortening it down at putting the ball in play, and we scored on that too,” Dillinger said. “So that’s a play we’ve been working on. We’ve got a couple other things we’re going to try, we’ve been working on, but we’ve been kind of saving some things for later on in tournament play.”
UPDATE: ADM softball’s doubleheader at Ballard in Huxley that was scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Monday has been postponed to the same start time on Tuesday due to rain throughout the day on Monday. Junior varsity will play following the first varsity game, and the evening will conclude with the second varsity game at approximately 7:30 p.m. That conflicts with the scheduled Tuesday night home game against Indianola, which the team hopes to play on Wednesday, pending the availability of officials.