State softball: West Lyon uses big inning to topple No. 2 Louisa-Muscatine | The Hawk Eye – Burlington, Iowa

FORT DODGE — One inning.

That is what separated the Louisa-Muscatine High School softball team from a place in the state championship game Friday night.

The Falcons made two errors and gave up five runs in a decisive sixth inning as third-ranked West Lyon rallied for a 9-4 victory over Louisa-Muscatine in a Class 2A state semifinal on Wednesday at the Rogers Sports Complex.

West Lyon (30-1) advances to the state championship game to play top-ranked Van Meter (33-2) at 5 p.m. Friday.

Second-ranked Louisa-Muscatine (30-7) will play seventh-ranked West Fork (23-7) at 3:30 p.m. Friday in the third-place game.

One inning is all that separated Louisa-Muscatine from a chance to play for a state championship.

“That’s typically how it happens. One bad inning can end your season. But next year is double elimination, so we’ll be back next year and this one game won’t set us back. We’ll be ready to play,” Louisa-Muscatine coach Bryan Butler said.

West Lyon jumped on Falcons starter Kamryn Taylor for two runs in the top of the first inning. Ella Langenhorst doubled to lead off the game, took second on a single by Leah Blauwet and scored on a throwing error by right fielder Keely Williams. Blauwet scored on a passed ball to give the Wildcats a quick 2-0 lead.

Louisa-Muscatine scored a run in the third inning to slice the deficit in half. Hannah Kissell got a pitch to her liking and sent it soaring over the fence in right-center field for her first home run of the season. It was just the second long ball of the year for the Falcons.

“It was exciting. I felt it off the bat. ‘This feels good. I hope it goes over.’ It did,” Kissell said. “I was not expecting to come in here today and hit a home run. That was my pitch and I hit the center of the bat and barreled it up.”

West Lyon responded with two runs in the top of the fourth. Reese Kramer led off with a single and Braylynn Childress followed with a home run to right-center field to give the Wildcats a 4-1 lead.

Butler then brought in eighth grader Grace Hoopes to pitch.

“Nobody ever had their head down. We always believed we could do it,” Taylor said. “Even though we came up short, it was still a good game. We had fun. If things went our way — we hit gaps — it would have been a different ball game. But it doesn’t always go your way.”

Louisa-Muscatine battled back. Joslynn Ramer drew a walk to open the bottom of the fourth. One out later, Kiki Enriquez doubled in courtesy runner Payton Reisbeck. One out later, Jersey Ramer singled in Enriquez to pull the Falcons within 4-3.

The Falcons knotted the game in the fifth. Grace Kissell singled to start the inning. One out later, Williams laid down a bunt. An overthrow by Kramer allowed Kissell to score and tie the game.

But Williams was left stranded at third base.

“We did have a great game, but it’s hard, especially since this is the game to get to the state championship,” Hannah Kissell said. “It’s hard, but we’re still a great group of girls and we still love playing with each other.”

An uncharacteristic sixth inning led to the Falcons’ demise. A pair of fielding errors and five hits turned a tie game into a 9-4 West Lyon lead.

“These errors that we had. Just keep pushing through it and never give up,” Kissell said. “During this game we never gave up. We might have made errors, but we never dropped our heads too low that we couldn’t come back.”

Louisa-Muscatine once again fought back. A two-out single by Jersey Ramer and a walk to Lexi Ramer set the Falcons up in the sixth inning. But shortstop Childress made a great snag of a line off the bat of Grace Kissell to extinguish the threat.

Louisa-Muscatine kept battling. Hannah Kissell singled to open the bottom of the seventh. She advanced on a single by Williams and scored on a West Lyon throwing error which allowed Williams to sprint to third base.

But Jersey Hawf got Joslynn Ramer to fly out to short center field and Kamryn Taylor to fly out to short right field.

Enriquez beat out an infield single, but was thrown out trying to steal to end the game.

“Even these last couple innings we were hitting the ball, trying to pick at it a little bit more,” Hannah Kissell said. “It just didn’t end up happening.”

“It’s amazing just being part of such an accomplishment,” Taylor said. “Everybody did good. There’s nothing to put our heads down about. We’ll come back and play our game (Friday).”

“The girls never gave up,. Even the last inning we had base runners. Just some things we ran ourselves out of innings. It’s not for the lack of effort or the lack of trying and having fun. The girls have a lot of fun. I’m so proud of them,” Butler said. “They kept fighting to the end. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. We were pecking away. Hannah gets on. We had a rally going, but it stalled out. That’s just softball.”