For the second consecutive season coach Dillinger and his Lady Tiger softball team made it back to the regional final match up as they took on the Lady Crusaders of Bishop-Heelan last night. Last night’s contest matched the 13th ranked Lady Crusaders against the 3rd ranked Lady Tigers for class 4A’s region 1 championship game with the winner earning the right to head to the coveted state tournament.
As advertised the contest would match up two evenly matched teams against each other and it would turn out to be both a low run and low hit contest with just 6 combined hits between both teams on the night and allowing just to combined runs to cross the plate. The action would start right away in the top of inning number one as Bishop-Heelan short stop Lexie Stolen took a belt high pitch from Molly Jacobsen over the left field fence giving the Lady Crusaders an early 1-0 lead after one.
The first inning home run was followed up with an RBI triple in the third inning as the only two runs allowed in the game for either squad as the Lady Crusaders cushioned their lead to 2-0. Only four hits would be allowed for the Lady Crusaders but that would be just enough for Bishop-Heelan as Lexi Rickie held the normally potent ADM offense to just two sixth inning hits; a double by Abby Hlas and a single by Ashley Tennant, as the Lady Crusaders would take the win and the right to head to state by the 2-0 final.
Just two runs and four hits were the only blemishes on the night for senior pitcher Molly Jacobsen who would end her ADM career with a unique situation tossing a 20 strikeout night for the loss. Jacobsen did everything she could inside the circle with that 20 strikeout performance as all but two Bishop-Heelan outs were recorded via strikeout. She ends her senior season with 429 strikeouts as she stands alone atop all five classes as the strikeout leader in the 2016 Iowa High School softball season.
With the loss the Lady Tigers end their 2016 season with a 31-6 record having never left the top three in the class 4A rankings all season.