New stars twinkling as Benton keeps rolling

Eric Stenberg made a bold prediction. Angie Gorkow, a shocked response.

'I told her a couple years ago that if she worked hard, she could be our next superstar,' said Stenberg, the softball coach at Benton Community.'

'She looked at me with wide eyes that said, 'Yeah, right.''

Yeah, right. Really.

Gorkow is doing an uncanny impersonation of Alyssa Wiebel, and the Bobcats have picked up where they left off last season.

Their sweep of South Tama on Tuesday sent them to 7-0 (heading into Wednesday's home twinbill against Maquoketa) and extended their winning streak to 33 games.

The 2016 Class 3A state champion, Benton lost four prominent starters to graduation, and two of them made immediate impacts at the Division-I college level this spring — pitcher Amber Fiser at Minnesota, Wiebel at Illinois State.

But the Bobcats roll on.

'The girls are probably pleasantly surprised with where they're at right now,' Stenberg said. 'We knew coming in that we were going to have to score some runs.'

The Bobcats have, and Gorkow — a sophomore — has been right in the middle of it. She already has double digits in runs and RBIs, and belted her fifth home run Tuesday.

'She's been phenomenal,' Stenberg said. 'We have several kids batting over .400. '(Shelby) Hulsebus has been a very tough out.'

Hulsebus and Grace Martensen provide the ignition and the speed at the top of the order, batting 1-2, or sometimes 2-1.

In the pitching circle, the Bobcats no longer have a strike-'em-all-out threat like Fiser, but the rotation of Anna Stenberg, Martensen and eighth-grader Katelyn Buscher has been far more than merely serviceable.

'Anna has increased her velocity a lot, she can hit spots, she has a good slow drop and a good riseball,' Stenberg said. 'Martensen is a quality pitcher, and Buscher is going to be the future.'

Benton moves up to Class 4A this year, which may not be a bad thing.

'It will be different teams, different challenges,' Stenberg said.

SPEAKING OF STREAKING ...

Defending 1A state champion Lansing Kee as continued a winning streak as well. It's at 22 games after the Hawks opened the season 6-0.

Kee brought back eight starters from last year's title team. Junior pitcher Kendra Cooper is hitting .583 with five home runs. She and Courtney Cooper both are 3-0 pitching with a combined 59 strikeouts in 35 innings.

The Hawks allowed just one run in their first four games, then had to sweat out a pair of one-run decisions against Sumner-Fredericksburg and Jesup on Saturday at the Jesup Tournament.

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