Darrah knocks out I-35

Thursday night in Truro, for the second year in a row, the Interstate 35 softball team watched another team celebrate a first-round playoff victory.

Wayne, behind the arm and bat of Cassandra Darrah, defeated the Roadrunners, 5-2, in a Class 2A first-round Regional contest.

The loss ended I-35’s season at 14-16, which includes three close losses to their Pride of Iowa Conference rivals.

“This is the third time we’ve played them and this is the third time we’ve been ahead and made mistakes and lost,” I-35 Coach Tim Bogs said. We can’t make mistakes and win. We just made a bunch all year long. I think in 13 of the games we lost we were ahead.”

The Roadrunners took an early lead on the Big 10-bound Darrah. Bri Douglas doubles to the centerfield fence with one out in the second inning. Pinch runner Olivia Sulentic scored on a throwing error by the Wayne second baseman, to make it 1-0.

Wayne knotted the score at 1-1 in the fourth with a base hit and three I-35 errors.

In the top of the fifth inning, Wayne’s Lauren Tilley singled and Syerra Niday walked with two outs to bring Darrah, one of the most dangerous hitters in a game, to the plate.

I-35 pitcher Allison Seibert had struck out and popped out Darrah in her first two at bats, but this time the Falcon senior got a hold of a pitch that caught too much of the plate and lined it over the leftfield fence, for a three-run home run.

“The first couple times we jammed her and moved it around well,” Bogs said. “Walking her did cross my mind.”

Tamara Hackney popped out to first base to end the inning, but the damage had been done.

Each team added a run in the seventh inning for the 5-2 final.

Seibert took the loss, as she allowed five runs on six hits and struck out six. Darrah allowed just the one hit to Douglas and struck out nine in the win.

The Roadrunners will need to replace seniors Kate Knutson and Calli Beeler, but have a lot of varsity experience returning.