ADM’s Senior Kaylee Smith (left) and Sophomore Ellis Smith (right)

The Adel-DeSoto-Minburn Softball team keeps their sights set on a championship after knocking off number one seeded North Polk Wednesday afternoon.

The Tigers are one win away from winning the Class 4A Championship as they defeated the Comets yesterday 7-2. After not scoring a single run in the two regular season games, Sophomore Lauren Hagedorn started the top of the first inning off with a solo home run to give ADM the 1-0 advantage. Hagedorn now has 13 home runs on the season. However, in the bottom of the first North Polk responded with two of their own following Juniors Ava Husak and Lucy Lucas getting on base. Courtesy runners of Jaiden Uhl and Jocelyn Manock were responsible for scoring the runs.

The Comets would lead 2-1 until the fourth inning where the Tigers had two successful bunt singles from Madi James and Ellis Smith to position themselves to score. A 2-run RBI Single from Senior Aleah Johnson brought James and Smith for ADM to recapture the 3-2 lead.

The bottom of the sixth inning, Junior Aniston Tollari was hit by pitch to put her on first. A wild pitch from the Comet’s Husak sent Tollari all the way the third, then another wild pitch brought her home as the Tigers gave cushion to the lead to push it to 4-2. The top of the seventh inning produced three more runs for ADM as E. Smith, Johnson, and Tollari all scored to extend it to 7-2 over North Polk, as that would be the final score. For North Polk, Lucas finished 2-2 with two doubles in the game.

Hagedorn finished going 1-1 on the solo home run and was walked her next three at-bats (two of which were intentional). C. Smith finished 2-3 with two doubles, while E. Smith went 2-4. Scoring two runs for the Tigers included Tollari and E. Smith, then Hagedorn, James, and Peyton Herrick (courtesy runner) all scored one.

Husak was the losing pitcher for North Polk as she pitched seven innings, allowed seven hits, seven runs, walked one batter, and struck out five. ADM’s Hagedorn threw seven innings, allowed four hits, two runs, walked one batter, and tallied nine strikeouts.

North Polk will now battle North Scott for third place at 6pm on the Iowa Central Field, then the Championship Game is set between ADM and Carlisle following at 7:30pm on the Channel Seeds Field at the Harlan Sports Complex in Fort Dodge. Raccoon Valley Radio will carry the broadcast on K107.9 KKRF, beginning at 7:15pm.