Prep softball: Lady Dee softball season ends at state
· Yahoo Sports
FORT DODGE — The hopes of bringing home the program's second 3A state softball title ended for Albia at the hands of a team that has won the last two 2A state championships.
Visit tr-sport.bond for more information.
For the second time in three days, big blows by the bats of Van Meter proved to be too much for the Lady Dees to overcome. Jilly Wosmansky delivered a go-ahead three-run home run in the third inning for the sixth-ranked Bulldogs while Annie Netten added a two-run homer in the top of the seventh, clinching a 7-2 win over third-ranked Albia advancing to the final four of the Class 3A state softball tournament on Wednesday.
"We knew we were going to have to play a nearly perfect game to win and we didn't do that," Albia head softball coach Larry Achenbach said. "We had some base-running mistakes, they had big hits when they needed them and that was the difference."
Van Meter (34-7) advanced to face No. 2 Dubuque Walhert (37-6) later on Wednesday afternoon on Iowa Central Field inside the Harlan and Hazel Rogers Sports Complex. To make it to the Class 3A state championship game, the reigning two-time 2A state champs needed to beat Walhert twice.
Albia, meanwhile, brings the curtain down on one of the best seasons in program history. The Lady Dees finished with an overall 33-3 record, one victory shy of the most in any single season for an Albia softball team.
"We have nothing to hang our heads about," Achenbach said. "It was a really good season. We battled to the end. We stayed up until the end. We didn't stop fighting. In the end, we came up just a little short of that ultimate goal."