The #7 (2A) West Fork softball team will begin its state tournament with a 2A quarterfinal against #4-seed Durant Tuesday. It’ll air on 104.9 KLMJ. Facing a strong opponent, Head Coach Sadie Winfrey says the team has the confidence to perform at a high level in close games.
“One of the biggest things in the past is not hanging our head down too low if things aren’t going our way,” Winfrey says. “They’ve done a great job of getting out of situations or not dropping dead when maybe it’s not going our way. And that takes a lot of energy and good attitudes, especially from the upperclassmen and leading throughout some tough games that we’ve played.”
Durant (21-12) is making its seventh all-time appearance and first since 2017. Coverage will start at 11:00 a.m. with Meet the Team: West Fork Softball, followed by the first pitch at 12:45. The winner will advance to Wednesday’s semifinal and the loser will play in Wednesday’s consolation game.
The #2 (1A) Clarksville softball team will begin its state tournament with a 1A quarterfinal game against #7-seed Newman Catholic Tuesday. It’ll air on 99 The Wave.
The Indians (28-4) are making their seventh all-time appearance. Unlike past state tournament runs, Head Coach Katie Burman says this year’s strength of schedule has the team as prepared as possible, having frequently played teams from Classes 3A and 4A along with some of the best teams in 1A and 2A.
“Two years ago when we made it to state, someone mentioned to me down at state that we should be ranked higher, but they couldn’t really move us up because we weren’t playing huge schools. So ever since last year, we really tried to strengthen our schedule. Shout out to Mike Rupe, our AD, for doing that. He worked really hard on getting us in that Fort Dodge tournament. And then we really tried to stack it at the end of the season. So that way we were prepared for the postseason. But yeah, just trying to have a good schedule. And also, there were three Iowa Star-North schools in the regional finals this year, so we have been playing good competition all year.”
Clarksville held each of its regional opponents to just one run.
Newman (24-5) had two shutout wins on its way to the state tournament, and enters with the lowest ERA in the 1A tournament field at 0.84. Burman says confidence is key, especially with how well junior pitcher Sydney Lovrien has performed lately. She enters with a 1.58 ERA.
“Just going in with the mindset that nobody beats us. That’s what we keep trying to say, nobody beats us, which is a hard thing to teach. They just gotta have that in them, which they have this year. And I think a confidence thing, these last two games we have hit the ball so well. So hopefully that carries over. Our batting is huge right now. And Sydney has pitched awesome the last couple of games. So I think her confidence is very high.”
Meet the Team: Clarksville Softball will begin pregame coverage at 5:30, followed by the first pitch at 7:00. The winner will advance to Wednesday’s semifinal and the loser will play in Wednesday’s consolation game.
