Lehman pitches out of jams to lead Regina to state softball

GRINNELL – From an outsider's perspective, Sarah Lehman lost control in the third inning of Iowa City Regina's Class 2A regional final Monday and never really got it back.

Regina coaches and players knew better.

Lehman hit four opposing batters and walked three others, but gave up just one run while striking out 10 in 10th-ranked Regina's 5-1 win over No. 13 Baxter CMB.

'You get to the point where you think she's almost lost it,” Regina coach Jon Prottsman said of the sophomore. 'She hits somebody, she walks somebody, and then you're like, ‘Oh, crap, here we go again.' But she just buckles down and goes after people.”

The Regals (23-14) are state bound for the third time in five years, and will open the tournament in Fort Dodge with Durant (27-8) at 3 p.m. next Tuesday.

The Raiders left the bases loaded in the third and seventh innings and two runners on in the fourth and sixth.

'She wouldn't have done that last year,” Prottsman said of Lehman's ability to get out of jams. 'Wouldn't have come close to that last year.”

Regina struggled to string hits together itself for most of the game against Abbey Kahler.

The Regals thought an opportunity would come, and it did in the fifth. Regina scored five runs with two outs on six hits, all it ended up needing.

'We were definitely slow to start,” said center fielder Jenny Wick. 'But once one person gets something going for us, we just keep going and that's what we did.”

Wick launched an RBI double off the fence in left center to tie the score and Emily Bonnett followed with a bloop single that proved to be the winning hit. Wick was 3-for-4 while Lauren Clapp, who scored first, went 3-for-3.

Kennedy Brown and Madison Scott hit back-to-back singles and Lehman's fly was dropped in center field to score two more runs.

'After we got those runs, I (felt in control),” Lehman said.

The lone Raider run came on Kahler's RBI walk. Lehman responded by striking out Payge Jurgens, the team's top slugger, with nine homers and a .697 slugging percentage. She finished 0-for-4.

Prottsman said the intense heat may have aided in Lehman's overall lack of sharpness. Yet this is a game she might not have won last year.

'She'll have one bad inning, before she may have had two innings, where she hit somebody, walked one and then a hit,” Prottsman said.

'Part of it is the growing-up thing where she knows the kids depend upon her. That's her job right now, to lead this group and make people hit her pitch.”

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