Winterset sails 11-5 at state

CARLISLE — Wednesday was supposed to be Jena Young’s six-month checkup from her Jan. 24 ACL surgery on her left knee.

The University of Iowa softball recruit from Winterset has a good reason to reschedule that checkup. The Huskies knocked off No. 2-seeded Carlisle, 11-5, in the first round of the State Softball Tournament Monday afternoon and will face third-seeded Fort Dodge at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday on the Iowa Central Field at Rogers Park in Fort Dodge.

Fort Dodge, the defending Class 5A runner-up, reached this year’s 4A semifinals with an 8-3 win over ADM. The Dodgers are in the state semifinals for the fourth consecutive year.

Young suffered an ACL injury to her knee during the basketball season and was lost for the entire regular season and tournament run in softball until the state tournament. She told the media after Monday’s game she was cleared to play “a few days ago” by doctors. The shortstop recruit for the Hawkeyes will not play in the field this week. She ran gingerly on the bases Monday, including a jog home on Brynn Acton’s home run in the first inning as the Huskies bolted to a 2-0 lead that grew to 5-0 in the second inning.

“I was supposed to have my six-month appointment on Wednesday,” Young said after Monday’s win. “With ACLs you never know. Every person is different. I just tried to do the best I could every day. I’ve been hitting off my dad and off the tee for a few months. It was nice to jog home on the home run because I’m not really supposed to be sprinting yet.”

Winterset, which started the season 1-3 before going on a 9-1 stretch, takes a 26-12 record into the semifinals against the 32-9 Dodgers. The Huskies defeated Creston 6-3 in the regional semifinals before upsetting Indianola, 6-0, to reach the state tournament as the defending Class 4A state champion. Their return to state was not widely predicted.

“Carlisle beat us (6-1) the first time and the second time we jumped out 6-0 on a grand slam but we couldn’t hold the lead in an 8-6 loss,” Winterset coach Steve Corkrean said. “This was supposed to be a rebuilding year because we lost four seniors and we didn’t have Jena. Today the kids were pretty juiced because Jena was back with us. She changes everything.”

Young went 2-4 with an RBI and run scored in the win as the designated player (similar to designated hitter). She and her teammates were excited she could get on the field Monday.

“I probably had a few more nerves than normal,” Young said. “We’ve played here a lot, but this really felt different today. It was amazing. Our seniors knew this is our last week of playing and being a Husky. We’ve played that team a lot and we knew anything could happen.”

Acton went 4-5 with a home run and double and three RBIs in addition to pitching in relief of winning pitcher Molly Breeding. Acton pitched 1 2/3 innings with two hits allowed, one earned run, no strikeouts and four walks. Breeding, who started the game and came back in to relieve Acton later, totaled 5 1/3 innings with eight hits allowed, four earned runs, six strikeouts and one walk.

Avery Darling and Breeding each had three hits in the Huskies’ 20-hit attack and Darling drove in two runs. Makenna Olson and Young each had two hits. Carlisle had the only error in the game.