Iowa Valley softball tourney run ends

A 9-8 nail-biter victory in the first round of the Iowa High School Softball Tournament over HLV (see July 5 Hometown Current for the story) set the Iowa Valley girls up for a rubber match win over conference rival BGM, before falling to a tough Martensdale — St. Mary’s team on the road.

Iowa Valley at BGM

The Tigers traveled to Brooklyn on Wednesday, July 5, to face the BGM Bears (14-11). The teams split the prior two meetings this year, but this is the one that mattered with the season on the line.

The story of this game came down to a combined 16 errors and a big fifth inning for BGM that made things interesting, if only for a few minutes. In the end Iowa Valley had enough fire power to grab the win 5-4.

“Our girls were really motivated to win,” said Iowa Valley head coach Monica Miller. “After winning the first round for the first time in almost 10 years, they wanted to push even harder to go farther.”

After two scoreless innings, the Tigers started the third with a walk and a couple of well-timed bunts from Sahara Kanke and Ella Read. Some good base running, and some errant BGM throws, gave IV a two-run lead after three batters. Maddie Ray’s deep shot double brought in another run to close out the third.

Another successful bunt by Read in the top of the fourth pushed in a score and the Tigers sat on a seemingly comfortable 4-0 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth.

BGM had other thoughts. After the first batter walked, the top of the Bears order, and some Tiger errors, turned three straight singles into two runs with one on base as BGM’s cleanup hitter came to the plate. Karagyn Minnaert took the ball deep over the left center fence for a two-run shot and a 4-4 tie going into the sixth.

Lydia Kriegel’s sixth inning single pushed a final run home for the Tigers to give IV a one-run lead mid-sixth inning. BGM put the tying run in scoring position, but the Tigers held and stranded two Bears to end the sixth.

Three up and three down for both teams, including the tenth Lydia Kriegel strikeout, ended the game and advanced Iowa Valley into a showdown with a ranked Martensdale — St. Mary’s squad.

Iowa Valley had five runs on five hits in 29 at bats with 1 RBI and benefited from five BGM errors. The Bears had four runs on five hits in 32 at bats with 2 RBIs and benefited from 11 Tiger errors. Lydia Kriegel pitched all seven innings for Iowa Valley giving up only one walk while striking out 10. BGM’s Laila Morrison went seven innings with four walks and one strikeout.

Iowa Valley at Martensdale — St. Mary’s

This was going to be a tough one against a fourth ranked Blue Devils team that had five of six losses on the season come at the hands of much larger schools.

“Our girls did a great job keeping a positive attitude leading up to this game,” said Coach Miller.

MSTM started fast and never let up taking the 11-0 victory in four and a half innings. The Blue Devils bats got hot early, but this game was controlled by its pitcher, Campbell German. German ranks in the top five of several statistical categories in Class 1A this season. In this game she gave up just two hits and two walks while striking out 12 Tiger batters.

MSTM sent all nine batters to plate in the bottom half of the first inning and plated five runs. Two more Blue Devils runs scored in the second before Iowa Valley’s starting pitcher, Dakota Pedersen, turned the ball over to Lydia Kregel who finished out the game on the mound. MSTM scored one more to take an 8-0 lead into the third. The Blue Devils scored one more in the third and two in the fourth to end the game early.

“Our team kept fighting and never gave up. Even when we were down in the top of the fifth inning, knowing that if we didn’t score it would be over, we still got runners on base,” said Miller.

Ella Read and Maddie Ray each had hits for the Tigers.

Season wrap

Iowa Valley finished the season with a 12-14 overall record and a three-game run into the playoffs. The Tigers were 5-10 in conference play but beat two conference teams with better records in the post season. Sophomore Lydia Kriegel lead most team hitting and pitching season long statistical categories with 27 hits and 14 RBIs batting plus a team low pitching ERA of 3.11 with 103 strikeouts.

Izzy Kriegel led all of Class 1A in runners thrown out stealing from the catcher position with 18. That number ranked third in all classes.

Looking ahead, Iowa Valley’s Sahara Kanke was the lone senior on the Tigers starting line-up. Four juniors, three sophomores, a freshman and an eighth-grader from this year’s starters are set to return to what should be a veteran and experienced squad in 2024.

Miller concluded, “I am so proud of our team and the way they bought in this season. We worked really hard on being a good teammate and having confidence in yourself and each other. It is so great to coach such positive girls who work hard and want to learn the game.”