The beginning of the semifinals was a stressful one for the Highland softball team, but some timely hits and costly errors led to a Huskies win.
Highland got one hit in the first four innings, but only trailed by one as Katie Springer threw seven strikeouts in the first four innings, but gave up a solo shot in the first inning for the only hit and run for the Arrows.
Highland finally broke through in the fifth inning when Bailey Walsh reached on an error, Katie Chalupa moved her over on a single, and Seaira Drish drove in the run on a routine play that Wapelllo chose to take rather than prevent the run to make it 1-1. The Arrows struck again in the bottom of the fifth to regain the lead off of a two run shot from Aubrey Melvin to make it 3-1. Highland’s bats came alive in the sixth, while the arm of Allison Klenk began to become less effective against the Huskies.
Highland put three across the plate with Kelsey Hora, Bridget Murphy, and Morgan Craig all scoring in the inning to take the first lead of the ballgame 4-3. Highland added four more runs in the seventh off of no hits and four Wapello errors.
Highland head coach Carrie Wieland said this game was all about confidence, and her girls had it.
“I’m not shocked that Wapello came to beat us, they played an awesome game, they have great hitters. We knew that they were going to put a couple over the fence, we anticipated that, we just needed to score more runs than they did, and I think that is what they girls knew they had to do, and when the girls calmed down and picked better pitches and relaxed a bit a the plate, that is exactly what they did,” Wieland said. “Once we get runners on and their quick, it’s hard, it makes defenses second guess themselves.”
Bailey Walsh was 1-3 with a run and an RBI, and Hora was 1-4 with two runs. Springer threw all seven, allowed four hits, three runs, all earned, and fanned seven.
The Huskies move to the regional final to face Pella Christian who were 6-1 winners over Jesup in the semifinals. The final will be on Monday at Washington High school.