March 29, 2024

Raiderettes win Ringgold County matchup

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MOUNT AYR — There was one certainty about the Ringgold County matchup to open Class 1A Region 6 play here Tuesday night, delayed 24 hours by Monday’s rain showers.

Either Mount Ayr or Diagonal was going to break a recent losing streak.

The Maroonettes came in on the heels of a seven-game skid at 2-16 overall. Mount Ayr, starting the season 8-6, had dropped its last eight contests.

Six errors and seven walks issued to Mount Ayr batters hampered Diagonal’s cause as the Raiderettes earned the right to travel to 10th-ranked Wayne (20-4) tonight with a 13-2 victory.

Mount Ayr had its own problems in a three-error fourth inning that allowed Diagonal to get on the scoreboard, cutting it to 11-2. But, pitcher Tessa Shields had a sharper defense behind her in the fifth to set Diagonal down in order in finishing the five-inning mercy rule victory.

“Defensively we’ve had it kind of rough. We had 81 errors coming into this game,” said Mount Ayr coach Ranae Klinkefus. “Tonight, we bounced back from that bad inning that’s typically gotten us in trouble. On other nights, things have snowballed there. I also thought we had good baserunning tonight and we did a good job of being patient in the batter’s box.”

Mount Ayr sent 11 batters to the plate in a seven-run first inning that set the tone of Tuesday’s victory. Megan Warin, Alyssa Johnson and Maddie Mobley each had hits during the rally and Diagonal had two errors.

Diagonal pitcher Kasydi Klommhaus allowed only one run on no hits in the Mount Ayr second frame, but the margin grew to 11-0 in the third on the strength of two hits and two more Diagonal errors. Klommhaus was relieved by Katie Sobotka in the fourth inning.

Macy Larsen scored one of her three runs after a single in the Raiderette fifth inning and Warin scored the clinching run on a wild pitch after her single. Larsen’s run came on a sacrifice fly hit by Kirsten Dolecheck on a nice catch of a hard-hit liner by Diagonal right fielder Allison Norris.

Kaitlyn Klommhaus, one of two Diagonal seniors ending their careers, went 2-of-2 Tuesday with a run scored. She started in center field. The other senior was left fielder Shelby Comer.

“It takes us awhile to get going sometimes, and that was the case tonight,” said Diagonal coach Brandi Cole. “We’re a young team. We only have the two seniors, and no juniors.”

Five sophomores and three freshmen, including both pitchers and leading hitter Maddie Lohmann (.278) form the nucleus of next year’s team.

Now the Raiderettes face the challenge of taking on state-ranked Wayne on its field in Corydon tonight. Wayne won the only previous meeting, 11-0 in Mount Ayr on June 29 during that eight-game skid.

“We’ve played Wayne before, and they got us in the regional final last year at Chariton,” Klinkefus said. “They have a lot of good bats back from last year and the younger Fortune (Haylee) girl pitches for them now. It’s a matter of getting the bat on the ball. We have to be disciplined.”

Mt. Ayr 13, Diagonal 2

R H E

Diagonal 000 20 — 2 5 6

Mt. Ayr 713 2x — 13 8 4

D: Kasydi Klommhaus 2K 7BB, Katie Sobotka (4) 0K 0BB and Cassidy Lohmann. MA: Tessa Shields 7K 2BB and Alyssa Johnson. W — Shields. L— Klommhaus. RBI — D: Sobotka 1; MA: Maddie Mobley 2, Kirsten Dolecheck 1, Johnson 1, Bailey Anderson 1. Multiple hitters — D: Kaitlyn Klommhaus 2; MA: Megan Warin 2, Johnson 2.