Junior Aniston Tollari (left) and Senior Aleah Johnson (right)

Two players from the Adel-DeSoto-Minburn Softball team express their joy ahead of traveling to Fort Dodge for the state tournament next week.

Senior Aleah Johnson went 2-3 during the Class 4A Region 4 Championship game against the Winterset Huskies on Tuesday as she had an RBI Single and scored one run herself. Johnson was doing everything she could to prevent ADM’s season from coming to an end. She tells Raccoon Valley Radio that it was instrumental for the Tigers to score first to help calm the team down. Johnson mentions that even though ADM is very familiar with their Raccoon River Conference foe Winterset, there were butterflies prior to the matchup.

“I was a little nervous coming into the game, but right when we got those first couple of pitches, ‘I was like okay, this is normal, this is easy,’ like we’ve played them multiple times and even just over the multiple years, we just know their energy and we can always top that.”

Junior Aniston Tollari went 1-3 in the championship game, but pushed the Tigers’ advantage to 4-0 after a two-run homer, which she wasn’t quite sure about when it left the bat.

“Pop ups always feel good, but I genuinely thought it was a weak little flyout, and just being able to start that…that was actually my first home run ever, and just being in this type of game, it means a lot. And I was actually was given the bunt sign, but I wasn’t for sure, so that makes it a little more ironic.”

ADM, North Polk, and Carlisle all made the state tournament from the RRC in Class 4A. The Tigers will face off against the Fort Dodge Dodgers Monday at 5:15pm at Iowa Central Field.