As of last week, the Columbia Eagles and Waterloo Bulldogs softball teams were on  quite a ride, each on their own respective win streaks.

Columbia had won 15 games in a row going into the weekend and Waterloo had notched nine “W’s” straight.

Last Wednesday, WHS, who was last week’s Republic-Times Team of the Week, blanked their opponent for the fourth time in a row and improved their win record to nine in a row, against Highland at home.

WHS started off strong with two runs in the bottom of the first inning, notching three more in the third and its last run of the game in the following inning.

Quincy University commit Tiffany Harbison pitched the shutout for WHS, giving up just two hits to Addison Rosen of Highland’s 10. Fellow WHS senior and Eastern Illinois commit Annie Crouch, led the way for Waterloo at the plate with three hits and one RBI. Classmate Bryce Latchem had three RBIs on the day.

On Monday, however, Waterloo’s Mississippi Valley Conference undefeated record came to an end against Triad.

With Harbison again on the mound for the Bulldogs, the Knights were up 2-0 going into the final inning when Bridget Bushong came into the game after Harbison allowed three more Triad runs.

It seemed the game was over with Waterloo down 5-0 going into their final half-inning of the game. But the Bulldogs battled back and knocked in three runs to make the Knights nervous. That wouldn’t be enough, and the ‘Dogs went on to lose their first conference game of the year, 5-3. They are now 9-6 on the season and will look to bounce back at Jerseyville on Wednesday.

Perhaps even more impressive was Columbia softball’s 15 wins in a row.

The Eagles lost their second game of the season to a tough Edwardsville team on Saturday.

CHS won the first game of the double header no problem, 12-6, but fell 6-2 in the second game.

Eagle senior Kaitlyn Grohman took only her first loss of the year against the Tigers, who did their damage early up five runs after three innings. CHS put themselves on the board in the fourth, but would not prevail.

The team bounced back in a stomping on Monday, hosting Dupo (5-10) in a 15-0 shut out.

CHS was scheduled to play at Red Bud Tuesday in a Cahokia Conference match-up. Going into the game, the Eagles led the conference with a record of 3-0, while the Musketeers were 3-1. The game was moved to Wednesday due to the rain.

In other softball news…

The Gibault Hawks took second place over the weekend at the Nashville Tournament.

To start off Saturday, GHS blanked Waltonville, 2-0, and defeated Okawville, 9-2, on their way to the championship game.

But the title game against Nashville didn’t go as well, with the Hornets getting two runs in the first inning and six runs in the third against Hawks pitcher Megan Wagner. Nash- ville went on to claim the championship, 9-1.

On Monday, Gibault got right back at it, defeating Lebanon 10-4 at home.

The Hawks are slated to host Steeleville Wednesday.