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Huskies back to state!
Highland completes dream run through regionals
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
RIVERSIDE — The 2025 Highland softball team came certainly didn’t come in to the season as a favorite to get to the Class 1A state tournament, nor were the Huskies favored to do so when regional play started just one week ago.
Yet, when the final out was recorded in the Class 1A Region 4 championship, it was the young Huskies who were celebrating on their own home field with a state banner.
A Highland squad that replaced last year’s senior-led team with a group mostly compiled from freshmen and eighth-graders held off Iowa Valley 6-3 for the region championship, and for the first time in 11 years, Coach Carrie Wieland’s Huskies are off to Fort Dodge.
“(Assistant Coach) Samantha (Cox) and I knew it, but we got told, ‘they’re just so young,’” said Coach Wieland. “I said, ‘No. We’re going to do this now.’”
The Huskies scored the first two runs of the game, both via their patented small ball technique. Both runs were scored by Kinzie Ruess, who went from first-to-third on Adisyn Prottsman bunts in both the second and fourth inning.
In the second, Ruess would score when Maiya Singbell knocked her in from third base on an RBI single. In the fourth, Ruess would score on an overthrow to third base after the Tigers narrowly cut Prottsman down at first.
“It’s definitely a lot to think about,” said Prottsman. “You just have to do what you can do best.”
Iowa Valley tied things up at 2-2 with a couple of runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, but Highland pitcher Jillian Stransky settled in and didn’t give up another run until the final inning.
The marquee moment in the game came in the top of the fifth inning, when Highland’s lone senior, Lilly Barre, connected on the biggest hit of her high school career, smashing a one-out, two-run home run to left field to grab the lead back for the Huskies.
“I said to Samantha in the inning before that somebody is going to knock it out of the park,” Weiland said. “I said, I’m pretty sure it’s going to be Lilly.”
Barre launched a no-doubter on a 3-2 pitch, a swing that ignited the home crowd and completely changed the game, erasing both Iowa Valley runs from the previous frame.
“I’ve honestly been kind of struggling with my hitting recently, so having that, in that timing, was just amazing,” Barre said. “I had a 3-2 count, and I just had to get something done for the team.”
The Huskies added even more pressure on the Tigers in the bottom of the sixth, when a Singbell fly ball was dropped in the outfield, allowing another run to score. Kayce Schnoebelen followed with an RBI single, and it was 6-2 Highland.
Iowa Valley didn’t go silently in the Tigers’ last half-inning. Iowa Valley scored one run in the seventh and had the bases loaded with two outs and cleanup hitter Mallory Hauschlit at the plate.
Stransky struck Hauschlit out to end the game, and the celebration was on for the packed Highland crowd.
“It was pretty stressful, just having the bases loaded like that,” Prottsman said after the celebration. “But we knew that we had that.”
Highland was out-hit in the game, 8-5, but the Huskies put the ball in play all night. Highland struck out just twice in the win, and Stransky finished with nine strikeouts of her own.
Highland, (17-9) will now turn its focus toward top-ranked Wayne (25-2) at the state softball tournament next Tuesday. The eighth-seeded Huskies will aim to slay the giant at 4:45 p.m., and Barre says their former state championship coach will have them ready.
“We were kind of hoping Coach would give us a day off tomorrow,” joked Barre. “But she already said that’s a no.”
