The Lone Tree softball team won it’s second straight road playoff game on Wednesday knocking off IMS 10-5 in Kalona. Lone Tree took the lead in the first on a pair of IMS errors when Hailey Comer came in to score. The Lady Lions extended the lead to 4-0 in the third when Comer singled and Mackenzie Reynolds walked ahead of Madelyn Flemr, who blasted a towering homer to left. After the game Flemr talked about that big moment.

“Well when there are runners on and being the fourth batter in the lineup, my goal is to get those runners in, and I didn’t swing that hard, but I used all of my fundamentals and what my coaches taught me and I swung through the ball, and when you swing through the ball, and swing right it will travel far,” Flemr said.

IMS would answer in the bottom of the third as Casey Perez delivered a two out, two RBI double driving in Demi Brezina and Jacayla Litwiller to cut the lead in half. Following the game IMS Head Coach Kim Wood talked about how important it was for her kids to battle back.

“I never figure that we are out, we could be out 10-1 or 10-2 and Casey [Perez] always pulls through with some kind of something, either she gets on on an error or hits it to the fence or over the fence, Casey is pretty accountable when she get’s up to the bat, but a lot of girls are they went to the batters box with confidence, they played with confidence, it just didn’t fall our way tonight,” Wood said.

Lone Tree would come up with an answer of their own to take momentum right back putting four runs on the board in the fourth inning on five hits. The Lady Lions started the inning with back to back singles from Carson Gibson and Miranda Selck followed by RBI hits from Flemr, Mackenzie Reynolds and Cheyenne Evangelista taking the score to 8-2. After the game Lone Tree Head Coach Tom Dickey spoke about his team answering in a big spot.

“Well it was really big, and I talked to them about it, because Tri-County did the same thing to us, we got some big leads on them and then they answered us, and again offensive execution in that next inning after they answered us with two runs couldn’t have been better, we couldn’t have done any better than what we did in that inning as far as taking advantage of every mistake they made, putting bunts exactly where they needed to be and getting a couple of power hits,” Dickey said. “I really want to emphasize that it really was a total team effort tonight.”

Lone Tree would add two more in the fifth when Selck and Comer scored on a Reynolds single. Leading 10-2 going to the seventh Lone Tree had to withstand a final inning IMS rally that saw Iowa Mennonite send seven players to plate, collecting four hits and three total runs but it was not enough. Avery Edwards recorded the win for Lone Tree going all seven, allowing eight hits, five runs, three were earned, walking one, and striking out one. Hochstetler took the loss for IMS going all seven giving up 10 hits, 10 runs only four of those runs were earned, walking six and striking out five. IMS committed four costly errors in the field defensively. IMS ends their season at 12-13 while Lone Tree advances to the regional semis for the third time in four years. Lone Tree will face No. 6 Lynnville-Sully Friday night in Sully.