Cardinal won its second-straight Class 1A state softball championship with a 1-0 victory over top-ranked Woodbury Central in Fort Dodge Friday night. Hillarie Droz scored from third on a wild pitch in the top of the seventh, the only run in the game, “It was awesome,” Droz said afterwards. “Nobody thought we could do it. Everybody was saying that we couldn’t do it, that we wouldn’t even have a winning season this year, but we did.” Woodbury Central allowed just two runs in their entire post-season run, Wildcat coach Brian Alfredson says his team fell apart on defense a little bit, and “that’s how games are won and lost.” Spirit Lake won the 3A championship with a 3-0 win over Waukee. Pinch-runner Saddie Bahr stole third and scored on an overthrow, as Spirit Lake picked up all three of its runs in one inning. Spirit Lake coach Chuck Skogerboe says “it feels great. These kids worked awful hard to get here.” Skogerboe says he’s most proud of his team for playing “error-less” softball. Clear Creek-Amana beat Woodward-Granger 3-2 to win the 2A title. That game was decided in the bottom of the seventh as Angela Ganschow’s grounder to short scored the winning run. “It was really just do it for the team, you know, there’s nothing individual when you get to the state finals here,” Ganschow says. “You see the ball. You hit the ball and if it works, it works, and tonight it did.” In class 4A, top-ranked Cedar Rapids Jefferson committed four first inning errors and number-three Dowling Catholic took advantage. Dowling scored three in the first and cruised to a 6-0 win.
