The Greene County Rams were escorted into Jefferson by fire trucks with lights and sirens when they returned home from a 12-3 softball win over the Sioux Center Warriors Monday night. The win earns the Rams the first appearance ever for a Jefferson-based softball team in the 3A state softball team next week in Fort Dodge.
The Warriors were rated fourth and took a 26-3 record into the game, while the Rams, with a 26-6 record, have not been rated during the season.
The Rams had 13 hits and four errors, while the Warriors had seven hits and two errors.
The Rams played as the visitors and batted first. The game was scoreless after the first inning.
In the second inning, Marissa Promes got on base with a single and then Hannah Onken hit a home run for two RBI. The Warriors also scored one run in the second, with back-to-back Ram errors contributing. The Warriors had no outs and runners on every base, but the runners were stranded and the inning finished with the score 2-1.
Neither team scored in the third inning. Onken came up to bat in the fourth inning and hit another home run. Tressa Rasmussen and Kayla Mobley both hit singles, and Emma Saddoris knocked them in with a three run homer. Saddoris has hit home runs in four of the last five games. The score after four innings was 6-1.
The Warriors intentionally walked Onken in the fifth inning, but Promes hit a solo home run and the score was 7-1 after five. In the sixth, the Rams scored three runs, putting together a double by Saddoris, a walk to Emily Christensen, and a single by Onken. Promes reached first on an error and Tressa Rasmussen hit into an out that allowed a run to score. The Warriors took advantage of a pair of errors in the sixth inning to score two runs on an infield single and a double. The score at the bottom of the sixth inning was 10-3.
The Rams gave themselves more breathing room in the seventh inning, scoring two runs on the strength of singles from Saddoris, Mobley and Carleigh Paup.
The Rams’ 13 hits were scattered among five batters. Onken had two home runs and a single for four RBI; Saddoris had her 3-run homer, a double and a single for three RBI; Promes had her home run and a single and had one RBI; Mobley had two singles and an RBI; Paup had two singles; Rasmussen had a single for an RBI; and Christensen had an RBI.
The win put pitcher Promes’s record at 23-4 on the season. She struck out nine Warriors and walked two on the way to the win. She has 208 strikeouts and 27 walks on the season.
The Rams are now 27-7 on the season. The loss was only the fourth for the Sioux Center Warriors, who ended the season at 26-4.
The state tournament begins next Monday at Rogers Park in Fort Dodge. The Rams will play Cedar Point-Urbana at 5 pm.
The 2014 Greene County varsity softball team: (Front, from left) Laurin Lyons, Hannah Promes, Emma Saddoris and Hannah Cooklin; (middle, from left) Carleigh Paup, Tressa Rasmussen, Bailey Godwin, Marissa Promes, Emily Christensen and coach Greg Ruth; and (back, from left) coaches Tiffany Promes and Tom Kennnedy, Katelyn Hagen, Mackenzie Dennhardt, Hannah Onken, Kayla Mobley and Sydney Koch.
