SEASON FINALE

Hawkettes End Regular Season at GR

East Greene takes on Glidden-Ralston tonight, Monday, July 6, at Glidden in the final conference and final regular season softball game of 2009.

The game is actually the last West Central Conference softball game ever between EG and Glidden-Ralston, and GR’s last appearance in the West Central Conference in girls high school competition. The Wildcats baseball team is playing in a similar finale tonight against EG in Glidden.

When school opens in the fall for 2009-2010, GR will be competing in the Rolling Hills Conference, along with longtime rival Paton-Churdan and six western Iowa teams--Adair-Casey, Orient-Macksburg, CAM (Anita), Exira, Elk Horn-Kimballton and Walnut. Two suburban Des Moines Schools, Ankeny Christian and Iowa Christian Academy in West Des Moines, round out the 10-team league.

East Greene and Glidden-Ralston have been conference opponents since the formation of the Central Valley Conference in the late 1970s. After the Central Valley was disbanded a decade later, both schools became original members of the Coon River Valley Conference and then both moved to the West Central Conference in the 1996-97 season.

EG was hoping to head to Glidden as the spoiler in the Wildcats’ effort to leave the West Central as conference champions, but Earlham earned that honor with a 6-2 win over GR at the Lady Wildcat Tournament in Glidden on Friday, which counted as a make-up game for a game rained out earlier in the season. GR went into that game with a 11-4 conference mark, just behind Earlham at 13-3.

Earlham clinched the league crown, however, with the win, upping its conference mark to 14-3, while GR dropped to 11-5. Earlham has no make-up games on its schedule, so tonight’s game at Van Meter will just be icing on the cake for the Cardinals, as a loss would drop them to 14-4 but still keep them ahead of second-place GR. Des Moines Christian’s title hopes were dashed when it dropped a 1-0 game to Madrid on Friday. The Lions fell to 10-6 and were mathematically eliminated with that loss and Earlham’s win over GR.

EG and Glidden-Ralston tangled earlier in the season with GR winning 9-5 in Grand Junction. The Hawkettes will be out to revenge that loss and get some momentum going for the regional tournament. EG opens regional play Wednesday against Coon Rapids-Bayard in Coon Rapids. GR drew a first-round bye and will face the EG-CRB winner on Friday in quarterfinal action in Coon Rapids.

GR has a makeup game with Panorama which could be played Tuesday as GR does not have a Wednesday regional opening round game as do the other conference schools who play in Class 1-A and Panorama, a 2-A school, does not open regional play until Thursday.

West Central Conference Standings (through 7-4)
Earlham 14-3
Glidden-Ralston 11-5
Des Moines Christian 10-6
Madrid 9-7
Van Meter 9-7
Guthrie Center 8-8
Panorama 7-9
Coon Rapids-Bayard 5-10
West Central Valley 5-10
East Greene 2-15