Round One of the Class 1A – Region 2 Softball from Glidden, IA between Storm Lake St. Mary’s and Glidden-Ralston leads to a shutout win for the Wildcats.
Glidden-Ralston starting Pitcher, Vanessa Koehler struck out the first three batters for St. Mary’s for a 1-2-3 inning, but three consecutive strikeouts to begin the game. In fact, Koehler struck out 10 of the first 11 batters she faced and 12 out of 18 batters in the game. The only batter who was able to get a hit against her was Maddie Fiorendino, who had a base hit single, not once but both times she was up to bat (finished 2-2).
Koehler threw a total of 58 pitchers and now improves to 13-6 on the year. Panthers Freshman Pitcher, Neely Bacon (0-7) threw 86 Pitches with one strikeout and allowed five walks.
Offensively, the second and third batters in rotation for Glidden-Ralston, Tiela Janssen, and Ashlynn Tigges combined for five total runs scored. Janssen had two bunt singles and Tigges (2-2) with a base-hit single and triple after a leadoff walk. Tigges scored on all her plate appearances. The Wildcats led 2-0 after the first.
Five more runs were scored in the third inning for Glidden-Ralston. After Koehler popped up to left for the first out of the inning, it was back to the heroics of Janssen with another bunt single, followed by a base-hit single from Tigges to get Janssen in for her second run to make the score 3-0. Elizabeth Lloyd who had a sacrifice fly in the first to get Tigges in, was walked by Bacon. Bacon then struck out Kassidy Wenck before Jaelyn Subbert hit a single to right to give Tigges her second run to give the Wildcats a 4-0 advantage. Finally, Designated Hitter Breanna Bowman hit a power two-run RBI single in centerfield to score the final two runs in the inning (Lloyd and Subbert) to make it 6-0. Some wild pitches led to a couple of stolen bases, which is ultimately how Bowman rounded the bases to notch the seventh run for the Wildcats. The score was 7-0 after three.
Four more runs in the fourth inning with scores from Ally Snyder, Koehler, Tigges, and Lloyd racked up an 11-0 lead and that would end up being the final score. Notable performances from the Wildcats were Janssen, who had one RBI, and Tigges’ 2-2 night with an RBI as well.
Storm Lake St. Mary’s has a lot of potential for the future and much of their team is young and on the rise. The sophomore Fiorendino finished with two singles against a masterful pitching performance from Koehler. The Panthers conclude the season 0-13, while Glidden-Ralston improves to 14-7 and will now host GTRA on Wednesday, July 5th.
