Mustangs move on

WILTON - Mount Vernon softball coach Robin Brand sent junior pitcher Lily Dahlstrom out for the seventh inning in a 6-5 nail-biter that so far had seen every different kind of play, misplay and mental mistake. Dahlstrom had to face the heart of the Northeast lineup.

'I went up to her and I said, ‘Lily, isn't this fun? Aren't you having fun?'” Brand said. 'I said ‘This is fun. Make sure you go out there and enjoy it.'”

'I told (Dahlstrom) I knew their top hitters would be back up and said to stay relaxed and we'd help keep them off the base paths,” Mustang catcher Annie See said. 'She was really calm; I was really happy with her.”

The junior gave up one single but nothing else, and the 6-5 Class 3A regional final victory was in the books. Mount Vernon's (29-9) only other two trips to state softball were in 2009 and 2010 under Gary Stamp. The Mustangs face Benton Community (40-3) at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Fort Dodge. 'It was a big adrenaline rush because we all wanted to win,” Sullivan said of the final inning. 'You have to go into it like it's any other part of the game.”

This was a battle of bats and of resilience. The game included 19 hits, including booming homers from Northeast's Rylee Dickey and Kelsey Carder. It also included eight errors and a handful of mental errors.

'They are pretty unstoppable when it comes to adversity,' Brand said. 'So one error here or one play here or one hit there doesn't even faze them. They just go to the next pitch.”

'The past two games were shutouts, and this game we had a ballgame and we were ready to go,” See said. 'We all knew we could do it. Our team can get through anything. We've had so many adversities this season, and we've worked through all of them.”

See had three RBIs, and Libby Ryan two. Building a 6-3 lead after four innings was key.

'We're so excited. We worked so hard this year,” See said.