FORT DODGE – This wasn’t the debut the Exira-EHK/Audubon softball team was hoping for.
Conversely, it was for eighth-seeded Edgewood-Colesburg against the Spartans in Monday’s Iowa Class 1A state softball tournament opener.
Rachel Eglseder, the Vikings’ ace who came in to the tournament with 283 strikeouts, fanned 15 Spartans, tying for an all-time Class 1A best in quarterbacking a 6-3 upset victory on the Farm Bureau Field.
The Spartans (23-5), the No. 1 team in Class 1A, will now have to win an elimination game Tuesday afternoon to stay in this new double-elimination tournament.
“That’s the beauty about the double elimination thing … you’re not done,” said coach Tom Petersen after talking with his team. “You get a chance to come back and play again. And that’s exactly what I said to them over here. I said, ‘You know, this is the first time they’ve had this format. Our goal is to step up and play two games tomorrow.
“So I hope that our girls are excited for that opportunity to flush this yet. It stinks that we lost, but that’s got to be behind you,” he said.
The Spartans did draw first blood, as lead-off batter Taryn Petersen took advantage of being hit by a pitch to score on a one-out double by Riley Miller.
However, Eglseder settled in and, with one strikeout already in the books, went on to strike out six of the next seven batters she faced. The Vikings offense, meantime, got on the board on the first of two home runs by Abbi Schmelzer, her first coming in the second inning on a solo shot over the left field fence to tie the game.
The Vikings added two more runs in the fourth on Chloe Everett’s RBI single with two out, making it 3-1. The Spartans fought back in the fifth, and again it was a two-run hit, again by Miller. Miller ended with all three of the Spartans’ hits, and all three RBIs.
Miller’s two-RBI hit made it 3-3, but the Schmelzer got her team the two-run lead back in the top of the sixth with her second home run, a two-run blast over right to make it 5-3. Eglseder helped her cause with the additional insurance run in the top of the seventh.
Eglseder’s pitches were effective enough to keep the Spartans off-balance and guessing for the most part.
But, Petersen said, “It’s nothing we haven’t seen all year. There’s really nothing else to say. We’ve seen pitchers like her multiple times, it’s just a little bit different atmosphere. We got to be better. Obviously, you can’t strike out 15 times.
“You know, we changed a few things, but when you’ve got two strikes, you got to be up there swinging, and we’re watching balls go right down the middle.”
Still, the Spartans got baseruners on. “We still had girls in scoring position even though we only had three hits,” said Petersen.
Miller, for her part, pitched well despite the Vikings getting 10 hits, and in Petersen’s opinion, well enough to give her team a chance to win.
“That’s what good teams are going to do,” said Petersen. “They got two runs in, but she still threw good enough to win. We got some plays that we left out there, and we just have to be better.”
Petersen was indeed optimistic that his team would be better in the next round and continue a potential march toward a state championship.
The Vikings (28-10) moved on in the winners bracket, while the Spartans will play either West Monona or Southeast Warren in a 10:30 a.m. win-or-go-home game. The winner of the elimination game survives to play against at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, against either Edgewood-Colesburg (if they are defeated) or the West Monona-Southeast Warren winner.
The winner of the 7:30 p.m. game plays again at 12:45 p.m. Wednesday, with a potential second game at 5:15 p.m., with that winner going to the state championship game.