Clarke cruises for third straight state appearance

KNOXVILLE — Don’t count out the Clarke softball team.

After losing five starters from last year’s Class 3A state championship team, the Lady Indians got hot at the end of the season just to finish the regular season with a .500 record.

With Monday’s convincing 9-2 win over 14th-ranked Saydel, the unranked Lady Indians are headed back to the State Softball Tournament for the third straight year.

And this time, Clarke didn’t need a walkoff hit in the bottom of the seventh inning to advance to state.

“Every year has felt different. The emotions have been different, but it’s always such a rewarding feeling to know the kids worked this hard to get in this position to make it back to Fort Dodge,” Clarke head coach Lindsay Diehl said. “It felt like we were in the driver’s seat the whole time.”

Clarke flipped momentum early and stayed in the driver’s seat the remainder of the game, keeping its foot on the throttle.

Saydel loaded the bases in the top of the first inning, but sophomore pitcher Sydnee Redman induced a comebacker to end the inning.

Clarke started the bottom half of the inning with four straight singles, combined with a Saydel error, taking a 3-0 lead. Sara Andrew and Amanda Kindred each drove in a run in the inning.

“I felt like we were setting the tone of the game,” said Andrew, who finished 3-for-3 with three RBI. “That’s what we did. We wanted to let them know the Indians are here and we’re out to win this game.”

The Lady Indians added three more runs in the second inning, as Sidney Marker singled and Vanessa Bakley doubled. Chynna Beydler reached on a fielder’s choice that scored Marker, before Andrew got another RBI base hit and Kassidy Spurgin hit an RBI sacrifice fly.

Clarke loaded the bases in the bottom of the third inning, but Bakley flew out to left field and Saydel left fielder Jenna Jackson threw out Kindred, who tagged up, at the plate to end the inning.

Beydler led off the fourth inning with a single and Andrew smoked a single up the middle. The ball scooted past Saydel’s center fielder, allowing Beydler to score from first and moving Andrew to third, giving Clarke a 7-0 lead.

Redman’s only hiccup came in the top of the fifth inning, when Liz Miklus hit a one-out double and Lyndsay Bianchi singled. Both runners scored on Annika Hofbauer’s single, combined with an error in the outfield.

But Clarke responded with two more runs in the bottom of the inning.

Ally Deutsch and Brooke Hem hit back-to-back doubles and Andrew hit a sacrifice fly to score Megan Linskens, who was running for Hem.

“I kept looking up at the scoreboard and seeing how many hits we had, and no matter what they do getting on base, I knew our bats were going to get us back out of trouble,” Diehl said. “The defense stepped up and made plays. Sydnee did a great job on the mound.”

“I wasn’t worried about the bases loaded, because we always come right back,” Redman said. “We just keep hitting the ball, scoring more runs. That was good we just kept producing more runs and more runs, so I had more room to breathe.”

Defensive gem

Saydel tried to produce one more rally in its final at-bat, loading the bases with one out thanks to a pair of walks and Alexis Carney reaching on an error.

Bakley kept the ball on the infield, saving a run from scoring, but her throw got away from Andrew at third base.

Hofbauer then hit a short fly ball into center field that looked like it would score at least one run.

But eighth-grade center fielder Linskens made a diving catch, coming in on the play, to save a run and put the Lady Indians one out away from their third straight trip to state.

“I’ve been working on those in practice a lot, so when I saw it, I thought I might have to dive for this one,” Linskens said. “And when I got closer to it, I knew I would have to lay out. I just had the confidence in myself. I caught it and my teammates had my back the whole way.”

“We were trying to get kids to be comfortable with diving and know what ball you can and know what ball you can’t,” Diehl said. “She did it a couple of times at practice and that’s the first time she’s done it in a game. For an eighth-grader to step up and make that play right there, they could have got a lot of momentum going right there.”

Redman induced a grounder to Bakley at shortstop, who stepped on second base for the force out to end the game.

“The first two years it was kind of a big deal,” Bakley said about going to state. “But now it’s just like it’s Clarke softball, it’s something we do. We’re there all the time.”

The Lady Indians, now 20-17 for the season, open the Class 3A state tournament against top-ranked Solon (39-3), 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 21 on Mittera Field at the Harlan Rogers Sports Complex in Fort Dodge.

Solon advanced with a 5-1 win over PCM Monday, earning the school’s fifth-straight state tournament appearance.

“We’re the team when you open the book for the state tournament media guide, they’re going to say, ‘20-17, how did this team show up here?’” Diehl said. “I told the kids, I wasn’t crazy all along when I said if you execute the little things and do things right, you can put yourselves back in Fort Dodge.”

Clarke 9, Saydel 2

R H E

Saydel 000 020 0 — 2 5 2

Clarke 330 120 x — 9 16 2

S: Annika Hofbauer 0K 0BB, Taylor Steinkamp (2) 0K 0BB, Kaylee Polke (5) 1K 0BB 1HBP and Lyndsay Bianchi. C: Sydnee Redman 5K 4BB 1HBP and Kassidy Spurgin. W — Redman. L— Hofbauer. HR — none. 3B — none. 2B — S: Liz Miklus 1. C: Vanessa Bakley 1, Ally Deutsch 1, Brooke Hem 1. RBI — S: Hofbauer 1. C: Sara Andrew 3, Chynna Beydler 1, Spurgin 1, Amanda Kindred 1, Hem 1. Multiple hitters — C: Andrew 3, Sidney Marker 3, Bakley 2, Beydler 2, Kindred 2, Deutsch 2.