‘Not the way we drew it up,’ but Williamsburg repeats as Class 3A state softball champion

FORT DODGE — Adam Berte summed it up quite well:

“It’s not the way we drew it up,” the Williamsburg High School softball coach said. “But we’ll sure take it.”

Second-ranked Williamsburg scored six runs in the first inning, then held on to beat No. 5 Davenport Assumption, 12-9, claiming its second consecutive Class 3A state championship Friday afternoon at the Rogers Sports Complex.

“We’re on top of the world right now. Sky-nine,” said Taylor Sanchez, who drove in five runs and earned 3A all-tournament captaincy.

Williamsburg (33-12) has become the standard in 3A softball. It was the runner-up in 2020, finished third in 2021 and 2022, and now owns back-to-back championships.

The Raiders have encountered Assumption four times here in that run, winning three.

“They’re a great team,” Sanchez said of the Knights (27-13), who were making their eighth trip to the finals in nine years. “But it doesn’t matter who we’re playing.

“We haven’t been scared in any game,” Shannon Finn said. “I was rooming with Kalon (Spratt), we woke up this morning and said, ‘It’s championship day.’”

The Raiders assembled a monster rally in their first at-bat, with eight straight batters reaching base. That included a two-run single by Sanchez and a two-run double by Makenna Hughes.

  Buy Photo

“We’ve played Assumption a lot here lately, and I feel like we have a handle on what their pitchers do,” Berte said. “The kids executed it better than I could have hoped.”

Williamsburg finished with 14 hits, four by Alley Gorsh. Sanchez’s three-run home run gave the Raiders their largest lead at 11-3 in the fourth inning.

Assumption stormed back quickly, though, capitalizing on some wildness from Raiders pitcher Jersey Metz, who issued four walks in the fifth inning.

“I think the pressure got to me,” she said. “I was a little overwhelmed.”

With the Raiders’ lead at 11-6 and the bases loaded, Berte summoned Sloane Curtin to the circle for the first time in the postseason.

Curtin came through. She did give up a three-run double to make it 11-9, then struck out the last batter in the fifth.

She pitched a scoreless sixth, a scoreless seventh.

“I was pretty ready to go,” Curtin said. “I have a high rise and a low rise ... I learned the riseball three years ago from Trent Rubly, and I’ve loved it since.”

Carly Rich’s infield-single RBI gave the Raiders a little more cushion at 12-9 in the bottom of the fifth, then she triggered the defensive play of the game in the top of the sixth.

Assumption’s Sophia Caudle drew a leadoff walk, then Rich started a 6-4-3 double play off the bat of Charlotte Nigey.

“That lifted my spirits a lot,” Curtin said.

Spratt said, “If we don’t get that, the game might have ended differently.”

Assumption got a two-out double from Addie Williamson in the seventh, then Curtin induced a foul popup from Belle Stoffregen. Hughes gloved it, and the Raiders sprinted to the middle of the diamond for a dogpile of jubilation.

Just like last year.

“Words can’t sum it up about this team,” said Finn, who will play at Kirkwood Community College next year. “It’s just incredible.”

Finn, Metz and Spratt joined Sanchez on the all-tournament squad. Benton Community’s Jessa DeMoss also made it; the Bobcats finished fourth.

Metz could have crawled into the mope tent after being lifted. Instead, postgame, she beamed.

“I’m happy that Sloane got to experience this. She deserved this,” Metz said. “And we just won a state championship.”

  Buy Photo

Williamsburg 12, Davenport Assumption 9

Class 3A State Final, at Fort Dodge

Davenport Assumption 021 060 0 — 9 9 0

Williamsburg 602 310 x — 12 14 1

Molly Roe and Charlotte Nigey. Jersey Metz, Sloane Curtin (5) and Ashlynn Fuhrman. W — Metz (24-6). L — Roe (16-8). HR — Wmsbg: Taylor Sanchez (4).

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com