Riley Redig’s 7th-inning bomb sends Prairie to the state softball tournament

CEDAR RAPIDS — That was no home-run trot.

That was a 240-foot sprint. A Tour de Triumph.

“I was so excited,” Riley Redig said. “Words can’t describe it.”

With Cedar Rapids Prairie’s season down to its final out, Redig lashed a stunning three-run home run, and the Hawks toppled No. 7 Cedar Rapids Kennedy, 3-2, in a Class 5A softball regional final Tuesday night at Kennedy High School.

“We talk about staying in the game until there are three outs in the seventh inning,” Prairie Coach Alisha Frese said. “We battled. We battled.”

Prairie (24-17) advances to its third state tournament, its first since 2016 and the first under Frese. The Hawks will face No. 1 West Des Moines Valley (36-4) in the first round at 10 a.m. Monday at the Rogers Sports Complex, Fort Dodge.

“I’ve dreamed of this moment,” Redig said. “It finally happened.”

The Hawks mustered just two hits through the first six innings against Kennedy pitcher Lily Knutson.

Hannah Rudd opened the winning rally with a one-out single, then Piper Johnson kept the hopes alive with a two-out single just off the tip of the glove of Kennedy shortstop Lila Legislador.

If the liner had been three inches lower, the Cougars (24-16) would have been celebrating.

Instead, the game continued and Redig got her opportunity. She delivered, then booked it around the bases.

“I was just visualizing a base hit,” Redig said. “And the home run came.”

It was her second of the season.

As Redig settled into the batter’s box, Prairie pitcher Tatum Goerdt fidgeted with her necklace.

“I always do that,” Goerdt said. “And I talk to myself. And I pray. When she hit that, my stomach hurt so much. I thought, ‘Oh my gosh.’”

Her next thought may have been, “We still have three outs to get.”

Goerdt gave up a two-out single to Ella Brown before recording the final out.

Thus ended Prairie’s 15th one-run game of the season; the Hawks are 6-9 in such games. And it was cruel irony for Kennedy, which beat Linn-Mar in the regional semifinals ... on a three-run seventh-inning home run by Cara Crock.

  Buy Photo

“We showed good fight. They showed good fight,” Kennedy Coach Maddison LeClere said. “I knew it was going to be a close game. I just wish the ball would have stayed on this side of the fence.”

Kennedy scored a run in the fourth inning on an error, then added another in the sixth on Knutson’s RBI single. The Cougars stranded 10 runners, leaving the bases loaded in the first and third.

Cedar Rapids Prairie 3, Cedar Rapids Kennedy 2

Class 5A Regional Final, at C.R. Kennedy

C.R. Prairie 000 000 3 — 3 6 1

C.R. Kennedy 000 101 0 — 2 6 2

Tatum Goerdt and Lola Hawkins. Lily Knutson and Dylan Amling. W — Goerdt (16-12) L — Knutson (15-6). HR -- CRP: Riley Redig (2).

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com