(Atlantic) Atlantic is one game away from going back to the State Softball Tournament. The Trojans defeated Clarinda 11-2 on Saturday in a Class 3A Regional semifinal at Atlantic.
The Trojans scored 11 runs on nine hits. Rylie Wood went the distance in the circle allowing two runs on five hits, struck out four, and walking two hitters. Addy Wagoner took the loss for the Cardinals allowing eight runs, on six hits, with one strikeout, two walks, and one hit batter, in three-and-a-third innings of work. Andi Woods relieved Wagoner in the bottom of the third inning with one out.
Atlantic Head Coach Terry Hinzmann says the team had to overcome some mistakes defensively. The Trojans committed six errors but countered with nine hits. “We talked about that at the beginning of the game that it would be critical to make plays behind Riley, ” said Hinzmann. “She pitched well enough to get us out of those situations, despite giving up a couple of runs after the errors. We can’t allow that to happen heading into the Regional Final.”
The Trojans started hot offensively with four runs on two hits in the first inning. Riley Wood and Zoey Kirchhoff each belted RBI singles. Clarinda cut the lead to 4-1 in the second on Ryplee Sundermans’ sac fly scoring Annika Price.
Claire Pellett stole home despite a no executed suicide squeeze in the bottom of the second to give the Trojans a 5-1 lead. Zoey Kirchhoff drove home a run in the bottom of the third and the Trojans built a 10-1 with four runs in the last half of the fourth. The Cardinals avoided the ten-run rule in the top of the fifth inning on Presley Jobes’ RBI single, making it a 10-2 game. The Trojans threatened again in the bottom of the fifth when AVA Rush hit a single and scored on Jada Jensen’s sacrifice fly to extend the score to 11-2.
Andi Woods shut Atlantic down in the bottom of the sixth inning, and Riley Wood retired the side in the top of the seventh to secure the 11-2 victory.
“The big key was the approaches we took at the plate,” said Hinzmann. “We knew Wagoner would try and get ahead in the count early, so we were looking for that pitch. If we got it fine, if not we would go deep in the count, and we did that in a couple of situations, got the pitch we could drive, and took advantage of getting runners on base.”
Malena Woodward led the Trojans with a single, a double, and two RBI. Zoey Kirchhoff stroked two singles and drove in two runs, Riley Wood went 2-4 with 2 RBI, and Jada Jensen drilled a double and belted a sacrifice fly. Ava Rush and Maddie Huddleson each hit singles.
Presley Jobe belted two hits to lead the Cardinals. Kayal Degase, Jordyn McQueen, and Jerzee Knight accounted for the other two hits.
The Regional Final features number one seeded Williamsburg (31-10) against two-seeded Atlantic (23-14) on Tuesday night at Williamsburg. We will have the broadcast on 95.7 F.M. and audio-streamed on westerniowatoday.com. The first pitch is at 7:00 p.m.
