The Greene County Rams will play on the winners’ side of the state tournament bracket after a 2-0 win over Center Point-Urbana at Harlan Rogers Park in Fort Dodge Monday.
The game was short – only 67 minutes – as CP-U was the visiting team and the Rams preserved a 2-0 lead in the top of the seventh inning.
Junior Marissa Promes struck out six batters and walked none on the way to the shut-out. She allowed CP-U only three hits, two doubles and a single.
Promes also helped the Rams’ offensive effort, putting the first score on the board with a home run on the first pitch of the fifth inning. The only Ram hit prior to Promes’s home run was a single by lead-off batter Emma Saddoris in the first inning. The Rams were able to hit off CP-U pitcher Samantha Croghan, but not hard enough to make fielding difficult. The Rams were three-up and three-down in the first four innings. Smith’s only strike-out for the game was from junior Hannah Onken in the second inning.
The Rams scored their second run in the sixth inning. Sophomore Carleigh Paup started the inning with a stand-up double. Junior Bailey Godwin bunted and was out at first, but that advanced Paup to third base. Saddoris hit a pop-up that was caught by in the infield. With two outs and Paup on third, junior Kayla Mobley hit a single. Paup scored and Mobley got the RBI. CP-U finished the inning catching an Emily Christensen hit to right field, and the sixth inning ended with the Rams up 2-0.
CP-U threatened in the top of the seventh. The lead-off hitter got a stand-up double. She advanced to third on a pop-up to center field. Catcher Hannah Cooklin caught a foul ball for the second out and the game ended with another pop-up to center field.
The loss put Center Point-Urbana’s record at 28-10. The Rams will take a 28-7 record into a game with Clarke Community (Osceola) Thursday at 7:30 pm in Fort Dodge. Clarke finished second in 3A in 2013. They will play at either 1:30 or 2:30 Friday afternoon, depending on the outcome of the Thursday game. The Rams will finish in at least fourth place in the state tournament.
