Photo by Rick Thompson: Faith Shirbroun of St. Edmond connects against Humboldt on Friday night. The Gaels defeated the Wildcats, 6-0.

HUMBOLDT — Bill Shirbroun and his St. Edmond softball team circled a few pivotal dates on their North Central Conference calendar before the season started.

Friday night’s trip to Humboldt ranked right near the top.

The sixth-ranked (Class 1A) Gaels took care of business against the traditional power, blanking the Wildcats by a 6-0 final to open up a comfortable two-game advantage atop the league standings.

Junior Kaili Henning fired a two-hit shutout, sophomore Lauren Gibb continued her torrid stretch at the plate, and St. Edmond (13-2 overall, 7-0 in the NCC) plated four runs in the seventh inning to pull away from the Wildcats (7-5, 3-2).

“If you want to win a conference title, you have to find a way to get past teams like Humboldt and Webster City — especially on the road,” SEHS head coach Bill Shirbroun said. “We knew coming in that this is the type of challenge that you have to grind your way through. You’re always going to be tested by this team on this field.

“We had a lot of runners on base and kept the pressure going. We finally had some seeing-eye singles that gave us breathing room late. And Kaili and our defense took care of the rest.”

Henning gave up only two singles and one walk, striking out nine in improving to 8-1 on the season. Gibb had a double and drove in three runs. She is batting over .550 on the year.

“Lauren has just been on a tear,” Shirbroun said. “She’s seeing the ball well and making solid contact with almost every at-bat.

“We made most of the plays we should have. Payton Bradley had a nice night (in the field and offensively). We continue to clean up our mistakes and do the little things it takes — like not committing as many errors and not striking out as much — to win ballgames.”

Faith Shirbroun and Bradley both had two hits and scored twice.

Reagan Lee allowed only two unearned runs for Humboldt. Lee struck out four.

The Gaels return to action on Saturday at the Van Meter Tournament. St. Edmond faces South Hamilton at 10 a.m. and Treynor at noon.

The Wildcats are at Iowa Falls-Alden on Monday.

ST. EDMOND 6, HUMBOLDT 0

St. Edmond 100 010 4 — 6 8 3

Humboldt 000 000 0 — 0 2 3

WP–Kaili Henning (7 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K); LP–Reagan Lee (7 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K). 2B–SE: Lauren Gibb.