The Central College softball team is used to playing at home in the postseason and this year is no different. The Dutch will host an NCAA regional beginning Friday and will play Gustavus Adolphus in the opening round.

“We get a pretty good following for kind of a low profile when you talk about Division three softball compared to a lot of things across the country, but we get a lot of fan support,” Wares says. He says it is a little more stressful to host the tournament, but overall they’d much rather play at home in the first round.

Central is one of three Iowa Conference teams to play in a regional. Luther will host a regional in Decorah and Simpson will travel to Illinois Wesleyan.

Wares says a tough schedule and a challenging league race help when the post season comes along. They have already played Adoplhus and Wares says they know they are good, and playing high-level softball throughout the season helps them be ready for the postseason play.

Aurora of Illinois and Fontbonne will collide in the other first round game in Pella.

Two of the favorites in the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference softball race collide in Boone today as Kirkwood visits DMACC. Both teams entered the week 8-0 in the league race and have been scoring runs in bunches. Kirkwood leads the country in home runs.

“Honestly it’s kind of shocked me over the last couple of weeks that we’ve hit like this,” Kirkwood coach Joe Yegge says. He expected defense to be the teams strong suit and didn’t expect to win games with their bats. Over their last 12 games the Eagles have averaged 11-and-a-half runs.

Yegge says he tells the team they shouldn’t have to score 11 runs to win games, but he says that has been the case. Yegge says his team faces a tough challenge against DMACC as it will let them both see where they sit in the conference race.

McKinley Moore’s two run triple capped a three run second inning as fifth ranked Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont stunned top ranked Highland (Riverside) 6-2 in a class 2A semifinal.”I was just looking for a good solid pitch to hit to get my confidence up and get going on what I know I should be doing since I haven’t been hitting too well,” Moore says.

The Rockets had 12 hits as they advance to the 2A title game. “We came into the whole tournament just knowing we are going to do this,” More said.

Highland hurt its own cause by committing five errors in losing for just the second time this season. “It’s never happened, I don’t know how to explain it, it didn’t happen all year, that’s probably the most errors we’ve had in a game this year. We’ve been beaten once…it just didn’t fall into place for us,” Highland coach Carrie Wieland says.

Taelor Williamson led off the bottom of the seventh with a solo homer to center as second ranked Earlham edged third rated Woodbury Central 3-2. The Wildcats had tied the game by scoring two runs in the top of the seventh. “It was amazing, I let that ball go by and they scored so it made me nervous, but after I hit it it felt real good,” Williamson says.

The Cardinals take a 30-4 record into the championship game.

Two years ago Lansing Kee was a struggling program. Now it is a win away from a state championship. The Hawks posted their second straight upset in class 1A. This one was a 3-1 victory over fourth ranked AGWSR. “Hard work can do anything, these girls have worked so hard,” Kee coach Elizabeth Hill says.

The championship bracket resumes at the state softball tournament with the semifinal round in all five classes today. The opener is in class 2A as top ranked Highland of Riverside plays fifth ranked Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont. Highland beat Saint Ansgar in the opening round but coach Carrie Wieland says her team needs to do a better job with runners in scoring position. “Get the bunt down, push the bunt, do those things, make them make the errors,”Wieland says.

Second ranked Earlham plays third ranked Woodbury Central in the other 2A semifinal. In class 1A, fourth ranked AGWSR plays Lansing Kee while top ranked and defending champ Akron-Westfield plays number-six Martensdale-St. Mary’s. In 4A, top ranked Dallas Center-Grimes takes a 39-1 record against Norwalk. DCG coach Steve Schlafke says as the defending champions his team has used a different approach. “Last year it was just trying to get here and win the thing, and we tried two years in a row and it finally happened. This year it’s good teams will win it and great teams will win it twice,” Schlafke says.

Number three Solon plays fourth ranked Carlisle in the other 4A semifinal. The Class 5A semifinals are an all Central Iowa Metro League affair. Second ranked Dowling Catholic will take on third ranked Southeast Polk. Dowling pitcher Claudia Farrell says the Maroons are the defending champs in name only as there are only 4 players back who played last year. Farrell says they get every team’s best shot as the defending champs and that is motivation.

Southeast Polk edged sixth ranked Cedar Rapids Jefferson in the opening round and coach Tia Stiles says a tough regular season schedule had them prepared for the tournament. Top ranked Johnston will play fifth ranked West Des Moines Valley in the other 5A semifinal.

In class 3A, second ranked East Marshall will take on ninth ranked and defending champ Bondurant-Farrar. After losing all three games at the tournament a year ago East Marshall opened with a victory over Mid-Prairie. “We talked about it in the offseason, we had a bad taste in our mouths,” East Marshall coach Jary Hoskey says. Bondurant-Farrar coach Roger Roland says his team feels no pressure as the defending champs. “We just come we enjoy, we have fun, we have great kids. If we win it, God is good. If we lose it, God is good, no matter what it is a game to us. We’re thrilled when we win, and if we lose, we go out and eat pizza,” Roland says.

Third ranked Clarke plays Greene County in the other 3A semifinal. After finishing as the runner-up a year ago the Lady Indians are motivated to take the next step. “Most of the season we just wanted to get to state because we have six seniors…now that we are here, we just want to put runs on the board. We want Friday to get here,” according to senior outfielder Carley Robbins.

Clarke coach Lindsay Diehl admits the lofty goals for this year added pressure and they had to regroup halfway through the season as she said they had to talk about playing for today instead of thinking ahead to Fort Dodge. Now she says they can think about doing the work to win in the tournament.

Senior catcher Ellie Heiderscheit slammed a two run triple in the fourth inning to snap a scoreless tie and scored on an errant throw as Lansing Kee stunned second rated Lynnville-Sully 4-0 in a class 1A quarterfinal round game. “I’ve been waiting for one and it just happened to hit the right spot,” Heiderscheit says. ” I was exhausted by the time I got home, but it was all worth it, completely worth it.”

The Hawks are a win away from the state championship game just two years after posting an 0-25 record. “We’ve had a long hard road coming, it took a lot of work in the offseason, it started in January. This just means so much, it’s so nice,” Heierscheit says.

Class 2A

Katie Springer tossed a three hitter as top ranked Highland of Riverside blanked St. Ansgar 5-0. Highland coach Carrie Wieland says Springer appeared to be a little nervous at the start, but they knew with good defense she could do it. Wieland says while happy with the victory there is plenty of room for improvement. She says they left too many runners on base or the game would not have been close.

Defending champion Dowling Catholic scored three runs in the top of the fifth and got a 3 hitter from senior pitcher Claudia Farrell as the second rated Maroons got by number-seven Pleasant Valley 4-1 in a class 5A quarterfinal.

Farrell says she was concerned when the game was scoreless heading to the fifth inning. After falling behind 4-0, Pleasant Valley scored its lone run in the bottom of the sixth inning. The Spartans had a chance to score the first run in the bottom of the fourth but failed to convert with a runner at third and one out.

Markee Brown’s RBI single in the top of the sixth inning scored the first run of the game as third ranked Southeast Polk edged sixth rated Cedar Rapids Jefferson 2-0 in a class 5A quarterfinal.

Southeast Polk coach Tia Stiles says she was confident her team would find a way to score. Jefferson failed to score despite registering 7 hits.