Huskies bust Bears, move on to regional semifinals

RIVERSIDE — There was no upset in Riverside on Wednesday night, as the hosting Highland softball team did what it needed to do to get past English Valleys and move on to the Class 1A Region 8 semifinals.

The Huskies used a strong outing from Jessica Kraus and some key offense late to knock off the Bears 5-1 in a regional quarterfinal victory.

English Valleys was able to snake one run off of Kraus in the first inning, but that’s all they would get. Kraus threw 5.1 innings, allowing just one run on two hits and four walks, while striking out five batters.

Grace Batcheller came in for Highland in the sixth, throwing 1.2 shut out innings and striking out one batter to close the game out.

Highland came back from the early deficit in no time, scoring two runs in the first inning. The game was 2-1 until the bottom of the fifth, when the Huskies began to bust it open.

Highland put up two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning. In the sixth, Sarah Burton put an exclamation point on the game with a solo home run, her sixth of the season.

Burton finished the game 1-for-3 with a homer and an RBI. Kraus was 2-for-3 with a team-leading two RBIs.

Payton Brun went 2-for-4 in the win. Mackinze Hora and MyLei Smith each knocked in a run, and Batcheller scored twice.

The Huskies (21-8-1) will now take a nearly two-hour trip face No. 7 Twin Cedars (24-3) in Friday’s regional semifinals. If Highland can get through that, they will either play No. 11 Sigourney (22-5) or Wapello (16-11) in the regional championship on Monday.