March 29, 2024

Murray’s quest ends in 9-1 regional loss

Lynnville-Sully makes third straight trip to state

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PLEASANTVILLE — There will be no 10th anniversary state tournament appearance for the Murray Lady Mustangs.

Instead, fourth-ranked Lynnville-Sully will go to Fort Dodge for the third straight year — and fourth state qualification in five years — after a 9-1 victory over Murray in the Class 1A Region 6 finals here Monday night.

Murray, making its fourth regional final appearance under coach Danny Jensen in 35 years, was hoping to duplicate the school’s only state tournament appearance in 2005.

It was a 3-1 game through five innings against the speedy Hawks lineup, which featured 185 stolen bases in 37 games.

But the Hawks added four runs in the sixth, including a two-run homer by third baseman Brenna Lanser, to open up a 7-1 lead. Then two more runs crossed in the seventh on an error that would have ended the inning on a grounder back to the pitcher, inflating the final margin to 9-1.

Lanser also had a big game defensively at third, finishing with seven assists for the Hawks.

Jensen’s squad closes the season at 27-5.

“The other four games we lost, we were in all of them until the very end,” Jensen said. “Tonight we survived the first five innings. But their speed game killed us. Their hitters are pretty dang good, and (Madison) Rasmusson is a pretty tough pitcher. She kept the ball down and in on our hands, hence all of the ground balls to the left side. Their third baseman had a great night.”

Busy baserunners

Murray eighth-grade pitchers Kayla Wookey and Breinna Klein combined to issue seven walks while allowing nine hits, which created opportunities for Lynnville-Sully’s speed game to do its damage.

“We’re pretty young in the circle, and they’ll learn that in a regional final game we can’t have that many walks,” Jensen said. “I thought Kayla threw well tonight, take away the throwing error. Breianna didn’t quite have her best stuff tonight. But in the end, Rasmusson shut us down and we didn’t play enough defense. They’re better, I have to give them kudos.”

Lynnville-Sully coach Stacey Alberts likewise expressed her respect for Murray’s program, and wasn’t surprised to see her team in a 3-1 battle through five innings against the unranked Lady Mustangs.

“Danny is well-known. He has 700-plus wins in softball and we knew his teams are fundamentally sound and we would not catch a team like that off guard very much. We knew their pitching staff was young and we wanted to take them deep into counts. We had some people find their way on base, either by drawing walks or getting base hits, so that we could have some opportunities.”

Lynnville-Sully left 10 runners on base, so Wookey and Klein worked out of some jams that could have spread the score sooner. Murray, on the other hand, had only four hits — two each by catcher Zadie Hatfield and Klein — and left five runners on base.

Murray’s only run came in the first inning to tie it at 1-1, as Hatfield singled over the first base bag and advanced on McKenzie McIntosh’s sacrifice bunt. Klein then singled, and Deena Snyder launched a sacrifice fly to right field that allowed Hatfield to score.

Rasmusson, who will be a teammate of Creston catcher Natalie Mostek at Des Moines Area Community College next year, had three strikeouts and just one walk in hurling a shutout the rest of the way.

“She runs the ball in on your hands pretty darn good, and her changeup is kind of nasty,” Jensen said.

“Murray has power in the lineup,” Alberts said. “We knew we had to keep them off balance. That was our key. Madison’s changeup was working well, and that really helps. Murray has a very nice young team. They’ll be back.”

Lynnville-Sully (35-3) will face ninth-ranked River Valley (26-7) at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday at Mittera Field at Harlan Rogers Sports Complex.

Senior farewell

Three seniors leaving the program are injured catcher McKenzie Case, left fielder Chellsea Jones and third baseman Deena Snyder.

Jones, who led the Bluegrass Conference in RBI, will play at Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge next year. Snyder, who set the Murray batting average record of .488 last year and made only six errors at third base this year for another school mark, will play at Southwestern.

“Three terrific seniors. They did a heck of a job for us,” Jensen said. “McKenzie broke her leg up there at Exira and that was a tough break. I know she wanted to be there for us tonight in a game like this.”

Jensen will be inducted into the Iowa Softball Coaches Association Hall of Fame during the association’s all-star games July 27 in Waukee. The ceremony is scheduled at approximately 7 p.m.

Lynnville-Sully 9, Murray 1

R H E

L-S 110 014 2 — 9 9 0

Murray 100 000 0 — 1 4 2

LS: Madison Rasmusson 3K 1BB and Lizzi Van Maanen. M: Kayla Wookey 5K 3BB, Breianna Klein (4) 1K 4BB, Wookey (7) and Zadie Hatfield. W — Rasmusson. L— Wookey. HR — LS: Brenna Lanser. 2B — LS: Rasmusson, Makenzey Rozendaal. RBI — LS: Lanser 2, Van Maanen 1, Rasmusson 1, Lysandra James 1. Multiple hitters — LS: Rasmusson 2, L. James 2, Rozendaal 2; M: Hatfield 2, Klein 2.