Coe softball a smashing success with homegrown roster

CEDAR RAPIDS – Back when she played for Clear Creek Amana High School, Maliah Fligg had her share of softball rivals.

There was Williamsburg's McCall Meade, Allie O'Brien of Dallas Center-Grimes and Arran Weeces at Solon. Weeces, in turn, had memorable prep battles with the likes of Mid-Prairie's Mallory McArtor back in the day.

Fast forward to now, and you'll find this impressive collection of Iowa players sharing the same collegiate dugout as Coe Kohawks.

'We've gotten so many good kids from Iowa,' Fligg said after Coe swept a pair of games from rival Cornell Tuesday at Clark Field. 'It's just nice. You've seen so many of them at state and I played so many of them even when they were freshmen. They're all good players. I'd rather have them on my team than any other team.'

Fligg, a junior, homered for the first time this season in an 8-0 victory in the five-inning opener, then improved to 6-0 in the pitcher's circle with six innings of shutout ball and a 2-0 win in the nightcap. The sweep extended Coe's win streak to 12 games.

'I think our bats have really come alive this year,' said Weeces, who tossed a five-inning shutout in the opener for her fifth win this season. 'We just have total confidence in each other and we love playing together. The atmosphere is just so different because we're having so much fun this year.'

Coe (16-2) has scored more than 10 runs in half of its victories, including a scoreboard-shattering 53 runs in two wins last week over North Central (Minn.). The formula has clearly been a successful one for second-year Coe Coach Diane Meyer, with homegrown ingredients made up of 19 Iowans out of 22 roster players.

'My goal here at Coe is to recruit as heavily local as I can,' Meyer said. 'We've got tons of kids from a 50 to 75-mile radius of Cedar Rapids and that's our hotbed. There are so many good players in this area and I'm just trying to get them and keep them here at Coe. It's just an amazing group.'

In the opener, McArtor homered for the second time this season and is hitting .426 from the leadoff spot. Meade leads the team in home runs (3), while former North Linn prep Brenna Winn is hitting .531 with a team-high 19 RBIs. O'Brien (.500 average, 18 RBIs), former Linn-Mar Lion Maddy Ryan (.381, 12 RBIs, five steals) and pitchers Mariah Fritz and Alyssa Olson – who prepped at Cedar Rapids Jefferson – are just a few of the freshmen making an immediate impact.

'We've got a lot of new players that are really contributing well for us, picking up some big things,' Meyer said. 'We are playing together as a team so well. … We play a lot of players no matter what the situation is, and so all of these kids have been in tough situations and it showed today.'

Sophomore Stephanie Xavier had a hit in each game for Cornell (6-10), while freshman pitcher Haley Harmon struck out four in six innings of work in the second game.

Coe opens the Iowa Conference portion of its schedule with a doubleheader against Buena Vista April 5 at Clark Field, while Cornell hosts Knox in Midwest Conference action on Sunday.

l Comments: douglas.miles@thegazette.com