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Iowa high school state softball 2024 roundup: Scores, stats and more from championship games
The 2024 Iowa high school state softball champions were crowned Thursday and Friday in Fort Dodge. Find all the scores, stats, recaps and more coverage below.
Iowa high school state softball coverage
» 3A championship: ‘Not the way we drew it up,’ but Williamsburg repeats as Class 3A state softball champion
» 1A championship: 7th-inning rally sends Sigourney past Martensdale-St. Marys for the title
» Brackets: Updated pairings, schedules and scores for all 5 classes
Iowa high school state softball championship scores
Class 5A: No. 2 Pleasant Valley 14, No. 1 West Des Moines Valley 11
Down 6-3, Pleasant Valley (40-3) erupted for nine fifth-inning runs on the strength of a pair of two three-run home runs and held on to claim the Class 5A title.
The Spartans and Tigers (38-5) combined for 31 hits and just two errors in an offensive onslaught.
Addison Ohda’s three-run homer into the left-field bleachers gave the Spartans a 9-6 lead, then Jessie Clemons cleared the bleachers with a three-run shot that landed in the trees for insurance runs that proved necessary.
Marin Heller nearly tied it with two runners on in the bottom of the seventh, but her two-out flyball was caught at the center-field fence.
Class 4A: No. 8 Carlisle 7, No. 5 Adel ADM 6
Small ball helped Carlisle (37-8) claim its sixth state softball championship.
Evan Johnson-Miers led off the top of the seventh with a bunt single and eventually scored the go-ahead run from third on Addyson Eginoire’s bunt as the ball popped out of the catcher’s mitt on a play at the plate.
The long ball helped the Wildcats complete a comeback. Trailing 5-1 after the third, Carlisle battled back with a three-run fourth and took the lead on Ally Nolte’s two-run homer in the fifth.
ADM (31-10) tied it in the bottom half on Natalie Ramsey’s RBI single, but Addesyn Abel worked out of a bases-loaded jam by tagging a runner out at home after a wild pitch. ADM threatened again with two on in the seventh, but Harley Brower made a leaping catch in left and Abel ended it with a strikeout.
Class 3A: No. 2 Williamsburg 12, No. 5 Davenport Assumption 9
Adam Berte summed it up quite well:
“It’s not the way we drew it up,” the Williamsburg High School softball coach said. “But we’ll sure take it.”
Williamsburg scored six runs in the first inning, then held on to claim its second consecutive Class 3A state championship.
“We’re on top of the world right now. Sky-nine,” said Taylor Sanchez, who drove in five runs and earned 3A all-tournament captainship.
Williamsburg (33-12) has become the standard in 3A softball. It was the runner-up in 2020, finished third in 2021 and 2022, and now owns back-to-back championships.
The Raiders assembled a monster rally in their first at-bat, with eight straight batters reaching base. That included a two-run single by Sanchez and a two-run double by Makenna Hughes.
Williamsburg finished with 14 hits, four by Alley Gorsh. Sanchez’s three-run home run gave the Raiders their largest lead at 11-3 in the fourth inning.
With the Raiders’ lead at 11-6 and the bases loaded, Berte summoned Sloane Curtin to the circle for the first time in the postseason.
Curtin came through. She did give up a three-run double to make it 11-9, then struck out the last batter in the fifth.
She pitched a scoreless sixth, a scoreless seventh.
“Words can’t sum it up about this team,” said Shannon Finn, who will play at Kirkwood Community College next year. “It’s just incredible.”
— Jeff Linder
» Game story | Photo gallery | Box score | Watch replay
Class 2A: No. 1 Van Meter 5, No. 5 Audubon 3
Eighth-grader Mady Schnell blasted a two-run homer to center to break a 3-3 tie in the bottom of the sixth and deliver a state championship to Van Meter (43-1).
Audubon (30-4) built a 3-1 lead, but the Bulldogs scored twice in the fifth to tie it before Schnell capped a heroic week. Her eighth-inning, walk-off homer against East Marshall on Wednesday sent Van Meter to the title game.
Van Meter’s only loss this season was to 4A No. 11 Winterset on May 25.
Class 1A: No. 6 Sigourney 3, No. 1 Martensdale-St. Marys 2
First, she saw it with her eyes closed.
Then came reality, and that was so much sweeter.
With sixth-ranked Sigourney down to its final out, Ava Fineran delivered a mega-clutch two-run single, and the Savages went on to w
“I’ve mostly attacked the first pitch all season,” Fineran said. “I had to go with swinging hard on the first pitch, or not at all.”
It was a gloriously stunning ending for the Savages (26-7), who had done precious little against MSM pitcher Campbell German.
“This has been our goal the whole season,” said senior pitcher Carly Goodwin, the all-tournament captain. “To accomplish it ... it’s an unbelievable feeling.”
Goodwin’s first-inning home run was the Savages’ lone hit through the first six innings.
Sigourney had four 1A all-tournament selections. Fineran joined Goodwin, as did Josephine Moore and Erin Dawson.
— Jeff Linder
» Game story | Photo gallery | Box score | Watch replay
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