Alburnett moves on

IOWA CITY - Maybe it was the full moon; maybe it hearkened back to something more fundamental like the length of the girls' soccer season that took a number of players away from softball.

Whatever it was, Iowa City Regina was not right Friday night, and Alburnett took full advantage by winning a 2A regional semifinal, 10-4, at Regina.

Alburnett (25-12) will play North Cedar (20-12) Monday at Wilton for a berth in the state tournament. Regina bowed out with a 21-18 record.

Regina took a 2-0 lead in the top of the third on hits by Cammy Verducci and Emma Corkery and a sacrifice fly from Kennedy Brown. Then the Regals unraveled.

Two infield errors led to two unearned Pirate runs in the bottom of the third and changed the momentum.

'Our kids can come back,” Alburnett coach Kevin Johnson said. 'Our kids are believing. A lot of trust between myself and them and between each other. We're not going to beat people 1-0. So it doesn't make any difference if they score first.”

Regina went down in order against winning pitcher Amber Porter in the fourth. Alburnett then sent 11 batters to the plate in the bottom half as Regina committed three more errors, a walk and a hit batsman. The Pirate running game forced some of the mistakes.

'We feel we can run the bases better than they can play defense,” Johnson said.

The Pirates contributed three hits and scored seven times.

'We just kept the pressure on them,” Alburnett shortstop Taylor Huber said. 'We just stressed to keep the pressure on them, and they'd make mistakes.”

'We just came together as a band of sisters and kept hitting the ball and kept hitting the ball and kept hitting the ball,” designated hitter Kayla Hospodarsky said. 'Our hitting was really good, and our defense backed that up.”

The Pirates were led by Huber with two hits and three RBIs. Hospodarsky had two hits and two RBIs. Ninth-place hitter Madeline Avery scored three runs.

Alburnett added another unearned run in the fifth for a 10-2 lead. Regina scored twice in the seventh for the final margin when the Pirates committed their only two errors.

In all, Regina committed six errors. The Regals had seven hits. Verducci had two hits, scored twice and drove in one. Corkery had three hits, drove in one and scored one.

'We were real tight when the game started,” Regina Coach Jon Prottsman said. 'I don't know why. Those errors that one inning just snowballed. (Pitcher) Hannah (Stein) was getting behind on pitches and grooved the ball and they hit it. So give them credit. We got beat by a better ballclub tonight.”