Photo courtesy of ADM Athletic Director Rod Wiebers

The Adel-DeSoto-Minburn Softball team defeated Winterset 6-0 Tuesday in Adel to advance back to the state tournament for the fourth consecutive year.

The Tigers scored late in the contest after preventing the Huskies from scoring to secure their spot in the state tournament next week in Fort Dodge. The game was scoreless through the first five innings, but each team had opportunities to take the lead. In the bottom of the first inning, ADM’s Senior Kaylee Smith was robbed of a potential three-run homer when Winterset’s Natalie Smith made a nice defensive play. The Huskies had a chance to open the scoring in the top of the fifth inning with bases loaded. Karlee Akers hit a ball over to left which escaped the glove of the Tigers’ Olivia Wyant almost allowing Molly Breeding to score, but Ellis Smith picked up the ball to get a force out at third to N. Smith.

However, ADM got out of the inning then in the bottom of the fifth, Aleah Johnson began with a leadoff double then advanced to third thanks to a sacrifice bunt from Aniston Tollari. Cameran Smith had an RBI Single to knock in Johnson as the Tigers took the 1-0 advantage. ADM added five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning after E. Smith led off with a walk. E. Smith got to third after stealing two bases off of a sacrifice bunt from Wyant.

Johnson had an RBI Single to bring in Smith for a 2-0 lead. Aubrey Noring was courtesy running for Johnson then Aniston Tollari hit a two-run home run to the left to extend the lead 4-0. After that, C. Smith was walked then came Lauren Hagedorn who captured her 12th home run of the season as she scored C. Smith to push the lead to eventual final of 6-0. Scoring for the Tigers included C. Smith, Johnson, Tollari, Hagedorn, E. Smith, and Noring. Johnson knew getting the first run would be huge.

“You always want to be the one to at least score first and for me to even get that double in the beginning, that felt really good. I was like ‘Ok, let’s get this energy going,’ and so I was really hoping that we could get this going with me on second, and then when I finally came around on home, I was just like ‘we got to keep this going,’ we only have a couple more innings, but we just got to keep this going.”

Losing pitcher was Winterset’s Molly Breeding who pitched 5.3 innings, allowed six hits, four runs, and walked three batters. Reliever Brynn Acton went 1.2 innings, allowed one hit, two runs, walked one batter, and struck out two. Winning pitcher was ADM’s Hagedorn, who went all seven innings, allowed one hit, walked three batters, and had eight strikeouts.

The Huskies graduates three seniors with Breeding, Akers, and Summer Little. The Tigers are the Class 4A Region 4 Champions and will be going to Fort Dodge beginning on Monday.