Rams fall in regional finals

CRESTON - The loss was written all over Glenwood Coach Kylie Stanton’s face.

Stanton, who saw her team play some of it’s best softball of the season in a late season surge to get within a game of its first state tournament in over 40 years, had tears streaming down her face following the Rams’ 3-2 loss to Creston in the Class 4A, Region 8 final last Tuesday.    

“We went through this hole game thinking it wasn’t going to end like this,” an emotional Stanton said after the game. “It’s just hard.”

All of the Rams runs came in the first inning on back-to-back-to-back doubles by Sara Ingoldsby, Myranda Starner and Lyndie Van Ness to go up 2-0 at the end of the frame.

The score would remain that way into the fifth as both Rams’ starting pitcher Mackenzie Richter and the Panthers’ starter Taylor Briley settled in.

That changed in the top of the fifth inning.

After inducing two pop outs to open the frame, Richter walked the next two batters, setting the table for Josie Sickels. The Panthers’ leadoff hitter smacked a single past a diving Starner at shortstop to score Saige Rice. Shelby Palser then belted a double to drive in Chloe Hagle and Sickels to take a 3-2 lead.

Following the three Panthers runs, Stanton brought on Van Ness in the circle. Van Ness had begun warming up in the previous inning and was ready to go when called upon, Stanton said. Giving the Panthers a new arm in the circle was the right move, she added.

“I wanted to see if the change in speed would help,” Stanton said. “Mack had done her job and fought as hard as she could. She gave up the two walks, I went out and talked her and said ‘We’ll be fine, lets get out of this.’ And that was our mindset the entire way. They get those hits and the runs and something has to change and that was our best option.”

Van Ness got a fly out to end the fifth but the damage was done with Creston taking the 3-2 lead.
With Van Ness in control, having struck out four Panthers over the next two innings, the Rams would have their chances to rally.

Back-to-back singles to open the bottom of the sixth set up the Rams with runners at second and third with one out following a Brooklyn Taylor sacrifice. But a deep fly by Brielle Smith, who leads the Rams with five home runs this season, was caught at the left field wall to end the rally.

In the seventh, the Rams would once again get runners on with one out when both Ingoldsby and Starner singled and moved to second and third on a throwing error. But Glenwood couldn’t push a run across as Briley got a pop out from Van Ness and a ground out from Richter to end the game and the Rams’ season.

“We didn’t capitalize on our chances,” Stanton said. “Even when Lyndie came up that last inning she was calm and said ‘Coach, I got this.’ And you just get under a ball and that happens. Softball is a game of failure for that reason.”

The Panthers, a repeat regional champion, will face Fairfield in this week’s Iowa State Softball Tournament in Fort Dodge.

Stanton said perhaps the hardest part of the loss is just how bad she wanted this win for her five seniors: Van Ness, Dean, Starner, Richter Emma Ringsdorf and

“They’ve been our rock,” she said. “That’s the best thing you can say about them. They’ve a lot of crud to where they are today and they all did their job in order to get here.”

The Rams close out their season with a record of 21-14. Stanton said her team’s late season run, which included wins over Harlan and state ranked Council Bluffs Lewis Central and taking the Panthers to the brink, was the best softball her team played all year.

“Throughout the season we’d throw a good ballgame together here or there but collectively, these last three games has been the best we’ve played consistently all season,” she said.
“For this being my first season (as head coach) it’s the best possible experience I could have had. Everybody from one through 18 of the girls were the biggest pleasure to coach.”