Valley gives a top-ranked performance, crunches Cedar Rapids Prairie in 5 innings

FORT DODGE — They just don’t miss.

“We have veteran hitters up and down the lineup,” West Des Moines Valley softball coach Tom Bakey said. “They have good command of the strike zone.

“They try not to chase, and they hit strikes.”

Some of them, like Mack Mohler, hit them hard.

Mohler smoked a home run and two doubles, and top-ranked Valley looked the part in an 11-1 five-inning victory over Cedar Rapids Prairie in a Class 5A state quarterfinal Monday morning at the Rogers Sports Complex.

“They’re good hitters anyway, and it doesn’t help when you give them 10 or 11 bases, whether it was errors, walks, hit batters,” Prairie Coach Alisha Frese said. “You can’t do that, especially against the No. 1 team in the state.”

Alas, five errors helped open the door for nine two-out runs for the Tigers (37-4), who won their 24th straight game and advance to face No. 9 Ankeny (22-20) in an all-CIML semifinal at 10 a.m. Wednesday.

From a Prairie perspective, it looked promising early.

The Hawks (24-18) compiled five hits in the first three innings, and tallied the first run of the game.

Lola Hawkins singled with two outs in the first inning, and courtesy runner Drew Parsons scored on Emeri Hill’s infield single.

“I relaxed, watched it in and took a hack at it,” said Hill, an eighth-grader.

Said Bakey, who crossed the 1,000-win plateau earlier this season: “Sometimes, the most difficult thing is the first inning. Sometimes, it’s good to be the visitor here.”

Prairie had a chance for more, but stranded two runners in each of the first three innings.

Meanwhile, the Tigers found their groove.

Mohler doubled and scored in the second inning, then doubled again to drive in a run in Valley’s three-run third that put it up 4-1.

The Tigers brought nine batters to the plate in the third inning, 10 in the fourth. The big blow in the latter was Mohler’s game-breaking three-run home run.

“I’d hit two doubles before, but that wasn’t enough,” Mohler said. “I wanted to keep it rolling.

“We work really hard, before and after practices, and we focus a lot on hitting. An hour and a half isn’t enough.”

Valley finished with 11 hits. The last one, an RBI single by Ilsa Hervey in the fifth inning, enacted the 10-run rule.

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Photos: Prairie vs. Valley in Class 5A state softball quarterfinals

Hawkins and Hill collected two hits apiece for Prairie (24-18), which will face No. 4 Waukee Northwest (33-8) in a consolation game at 10 a.m. Tuesday.

“We had a lot of confidence in each other,” Hawkins said. “After the first inning, it was like any other game.”

But Valley wasn’t like any other team.

West Des Moines Valley 11, Cedar Rapids Prairie 1

Class 5A State Quarterfinal, at Fort Dodge

C.R. Prairie 100 00 — 1 5 5

WDM Valley 013 52 — 11 11 0

Tatum Goerdt, Lyla Canny (4) and Lola Hawkins. Alexa Stevermer and Paige Christenson, Emma Scully (5). W — Stevermer (19-1). L — Goerdt (16-13). HR — Valley: Mack Mohler (10).

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com