Jeff Linder

When her late-afternoon fly ball to right field was lost in the sun, Linn-Mar’s Karsyn Michael was off and running. Her 240-foot race around the bases resulted in an inside-the-park home run, which proved pivotal in the Lions’ 2-1 Mississippi Valley Conference softball win over Cedar Rapids Prairie in the first game of a doubleheader Wednesday.

The majority of Gazette area conference softball champions will be determined Wednesday and Thursday. Here is how the races look at the moment.

The Gazette’s area softball Super Ten, through games played Tuesday, June 25: Western Dubuque, Williamsburg, Benton Community continue their ride as the top three.

A Cedar Falls native (she was Miss Iowa Basketball in 1997) and former Iowa player, Randi Henderson has been named to Jan Jensen’s staff, as has Sean Sullivan.

Iowa City Regina pulled three double plays in each game of a softball doubleheader Monday night, sweeping West Liberty to move closer to a River Valley South Division title.

Catching up with six WNBA players with Iowa ties, through games played Thursday.

The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union will release high school softball postseason pairings within the next week or two for a tournament series that begins July 8. For now, here are the The Gazette’s mock pairings.

Down four runs, the Cedar Rapids Kennedy softball team fought back and topped Iowa City Liberty 7-5 behind sixth-inning home runs by Dylan Amling and Cara Crock.

Two late winning at-bats by Katie Pilcher lifted Cedar Rapids Xavier past Western Dubuque in a 4A top-10 softball showdown.

Prep softball notes: A squad full of second-, third and fourth-year varsity players, Washington is 20-4 and ranked No. 7 in Class 3A.

Area softball Super Ten and standings: Western Dubuque remains No. 1 in the area by a slim margin over Williamsburg and Benton Community.

With Class 3A top-ranked Williamsburg trailing early in the nightcap of Monday’s Wamac twinbill with Center Point-Urbana, Curtin pitched six innings of one-hit, shutout ball, and the Raiders went on to pick up the sweep, 3-0 and 10-3, at Jim Turner Field.

Catching up with six WNBA players with Iowa ties, through games played Thursday.

Iowa women’s basketball announced that Ava Jones will medically retire. She will remain on a scholarship that will no longer count toward the program’s maximum of 15.

Peyton Stineman’s seventh-inning home run extended the second game of Thursday’s softball doubleheader at Niemeyer Field, then Class 5A eighth-ranked Cedar Rapids Kennedy won it in the eighth, 8-6. That forged a split between the Cougars and Cedar Rapids Jefferson. The host J-Hawks won the first game (the one that counted in Mississippi Valley Conference standings), 10-5.