Facing an Albia team with a season record 25-3, the Clarke Lady Indians held the Lady Dees to only one run in the seven-inning Class 3A quarterfinal, but were unable to score any runs of their own that would secure the win to advance them to the semi-finals.
Clarke opened up the game with Maisy McCoy hit by the third pitch to advance to one. Miah Graves batted next, striking out. McCoy advanced to second on defensive indifference while Reese Shaw was at the plate. Shaw bunted a pitch that was caught by Albia pitcher Grace Pence for an out. With McCoy remaining on second, Ayhnka Hewlett was up to bat and stuck out swinging.
The bottom of the first inning had Abbi Nash pitching for the Lady Indians. Despite all three Lady Dee batters making contact with the ball, all three hits were caught - one by Graves, one by Parker Truitt and one by McCoy.
The second inning had Clarke batters Avery Watson, Maddie Youngs and Truitt all strike out with no one on base. A similar suit to the bottom of the first inning repeated itself in the bottom of the second for Albia, with two caught pitches with Pence out at first.
The top of the third and fourth innings for Clarke resulted in five strikeouts and one ground out at first with no runners on base. Albia fared a bit better in the bottom of the third with a strikeout followed by a walk to first for Zoey Zanoni. A second strikeout was followed by Zanoni caught stealing second to end the third inning. Albia advanced as far as second base in the fourth inning before their three outs.
The single point of the game was made in the fifth inning. The top of the inning had the Lady Indians strike out. With Albia up to bat, Pence hit a single with courtesy runner Maddy Montgomery coming in to take over. Two pop-out hits were caught before a double by Lillian DeMoss out to centerfield allowed Mongtomgery to make it all the way around to home.
Strikeouts continued to plague Clarke through the sixth inning. Despite runner Albia’s Green advancing around the diamond to third, Clarke was able to hold the home team from scoring.
With Clarke unable to make it on base in the top of the seventh inning, the game ended.
A July 7 game at Wayne had a 6-2 loss for the Lady Indians who finished their regular season 6-16.
July 10: Albia 1, Clarke 0
CLARKE (0) 0-0-0-0-0-0-0
21 AB, 1 HBP, 18 SO, 6.0 IP, 108 PC, 21 OAB, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 SO.
ALBIA (1) 0-0-0-0-1-0-x
20 AB, 1 R, 3 H, 2 1B, 1 RBI, 4 BB, 1 ROE, 3 SO, 7.0 IP, 92 PC, 22 OAB, 1 HB, 18 SO.
July 7: Wayne 6, Clarke 2
CLARKE (2) 2-0-0-0-0-0-0
27 AB, 2 R, 6 H, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 10 SO, 6.0 IP, 100 PC, 28 OAB, 6 H, 6 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO.
WAYNE (6) 1-0-3-0-0-2-x
28 AB, 6 R, 8 H, 4 RBI, 1 BB, 2 ROE, 4 SO, 3 SBA/SB, 7.0 IP, 86 PC, 27 OAB, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 10 SO.