Top ranked Akron-Westfield and Janesville combined for 21 hits and 10 errors as the Westerners held on for a 9-7 victory in a 1A quarterfinal round game.
“We just survived today, and we are happy to be there on Thursday. Janesville has a great team and they are very well coached,” Akron-Westfield coach Todd Colt says. He says the offense helped them overcome a shaky defensive performance.
“We’re young, we’re inexperienced, that happens. I was really pleased with the way our bats came through today. Mentally we need to get better we made some mental errors today,” Colt says. “But I tell you what, Janesville’s defense and their bats are awesome, I give credit to them, they put the ball in play. We try to put a lot of pressure on teams and they put a lot of pressure on us.”
Making its first trip to the state tournament Janesville rallied from an early 7-1 deficit to make a game of it. Janesville coach Shelly Sorenson says her team peaked at the right time. “We were rained out four tournament weekends and didn’t get in as many games in as we usually do and had some different things throughout that season that were kind of a setback. But then we pulled it together and said ‘hey you know we can’t control all that stuff, but lets finish as strong was we can in the postseason’ and boy, they really played four awesome games to get here,” Sorenson says.
“This is a disappointing loss, but I think they did some great things in their first time here.” Sorenson says Akron-Westfield showed why they are the top team. “They hit the ball well, they put the pressure on our defense and we didn’t play a perfect game defensively, combined with some hits, that’s the difference in the game. But, I give my girls credit, they really fought throughout that whole game and did some good things,” Sorenson says.
Kari Welter slammed a game winning two run homer to left with two outs in the bottom of the seventh as fifth ranked Don Bosco rallied for a 6-5 victory over number six Lynnville Sully in a class 1A quarterfinal game. It was Welter’s second homer of the game and came just moments after a game ending pop up was dropped on the infield.
Welter said it was the “most insane thing that’s ever happened to me and I love it.” Welter says she knew the game was on her shoulders after they got a second chance and she just went to the plate trying to hit the ball hard somewhere and hopefully score a run.. It was a crushing defeat for Lynnville-Sully which jumped out to a 5-0 lead before the Dons rallied.
Lynnville-Sully coach Stacey Alberts said it was “heartbreaking” to lose that way, but she was proud of her team.