The High School Softball Post Season got underway last night in Class 1A Region 5 on the Mahaska Zone Network as Twin Cedars travelled to Moravia. Coming in Twin Cedars was the heavy underdog after a regular season record of just 3-20 and a 9-0 loss a couple weeks ago to 17-9 Moravia, however the Sabers gave the Lady Mohawks everything they could handle before a 6th inning rally gave Moravia the 3-2 win and a trip to tonight’s regional quarterfinals at home versus Cardinal who was a 17-1 winner over Moulton-Udell last night. Moravia pitcher Autumn McDanel was phenomenal striking out 18 of the 28 batters she faced, but early on Twin Cedars took advantage of a few rare miscues in the Lady Mohawks defense.
The Sabers plated two runs in the 2nd inning after a leadoff walk and a hit batsmen then an RBI single by Kelly Spaur and a wild pitch. Holding a 2-1 lead, Twin Cedars wasted a leadoff double and a walk and couldn’t score in the sixth, then Moravia answered with a two-out rally in the bottom half of the sixth. Cheyenne Maddy led off with a single, then with two outs Peyton Rogers singled and Emily Moore became the hero ripping a stand up double to the center field fence that scored two and put the Lady Mohawks in front 3-2. McDanel then did her job and struck out the side in the seventh to secure the win for Moravia. Jensen Hastings suffered the loss allowing seven hits with no strikeouts or walks while the Sabers defense committed a couple costly errors and Twin Cedars finishes the season at 3-21. McDanel allowed just 3 hits while striking out 18 and walking 3 and hitting one batter.
Moore finished 2 for 3 at the plate with two doubles and 2 RBI while Cheyenne Maddy was 2 for 2 at the plate for Moravia who improved to 18-9 overall and now hosts Cardinal tonight at 7 PM in a 1A Region 5 quarterfinal. You can hear tonight’s game with Jamie Brockman on 99.5 FM/740 AM KMZN, the KMZN mobile app, and radiokmzn.com with the pre-game starting at 645pm.
Story provided by Jamie Brockman
