MARTENSDALE – After Montezuma beat North Mahaska in the Class 1A regional opening round, senior pitcher Kallie Robison asked, “why not us?” when commenting about playing the top-rated team in the state in the next round.
The young Bravettes should have plenty of incentive to prepare for next season, after giving Martensdale-St. Mary’s a major push in the regional semifinals on Wednesday, July 5.
The Blue Devils won it, 4-0, but for four innings, Robison and the Bravettes were right there with them, trailing just 2-0.
The top-rated M-SM team got a dominating pitching performance from junior Campbell German and prevailed.
German retired the first nine Bravettes she faced, and wound up pitching five perfect innings.
The Bravettes threw some defense at them, then had one major chance in the top half of the fourth inning.
The Bravettes’ Chloe Snook started the inning with a swinging bunt that took a crazy bounce past the second baseman for Montezuma’s first hit.
Madison Van Zee followed with a slapping sort of bunt that went for a hit. Ellen Cook bunted the runners to second and third. Robison bunted, and it wound up being bases loaded after the Blue Devils threw to third, trying without success to get Snook.
But German roared, striking out Laila Kercheval and Izzy Roorda to snuff out Montezuma’s only threat.
The Blue Devils are a hitting team, with a collective batting average coming in of .342. They have eight hitters batting over .300 with two of those over .400. They started innings with extra base hits three times, including in the bottom of the fifth when back-to-back doubles plated their third run.
A flyout to left field preceded back-to-back singles, which scored the second run of the inning to make it 4-0.
At that point, Coach Jeremy Van Zee replaced Robison in the circle with eighth-grader Leah Urfer.
Robison pitched 4.1 innings, allowed four runs, all earned, 11 hits, no walks and recorded three strikeouts. She moved the ball around and changed speeds. M-SM had trouble stringing hits together against her.
Urfer kept the Blue Devils off the board in the fifth inning, which she ended by inducing the third out on a popup to third base.
German got the pitching win. Teams have batted just .080 against her this season. She moves her pitches around and changes speeds often.
Her shutout win included 12 strikeouts of Bravettes hitters.
Montezuma made just two errors, both on the same play in which they retired the hitter trying to advance, so the errors didn’t cost the Bravettes.
The Bravettes’ Van Zee in center field made a highlight reel play. With two runners aboard, she charged toward a sinking line drive and made a diving catch to end the inning.
Martensdale-St. Mary’s advances with a record of 23-6. Three of their losses were to Class 4A schools in the last 10 days; a doubleheader sweep by Johnston and a split of two games with West Des Moines Dowling.
The Bravettes wound up at 13-13, after going 10-17 last season. Their offensive capabilities increased as the season wore on, and they improved defensively as the end of the year rushed up at them.
THANKS TO – Energy 106.7 FM and its sports director, Chris Varney, for his enthusiastic and well-researched call of the game.