Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

FORT DODGE – If it were up to Lauren Marth, her first career hit at the state tournament would have come a long time ago.

The wait for that first hit at the state tournament turned out to be well worth it for the Regina junior.

Marth plated the only run of the game with a two-out single to center field in the eighth inning as No. 10 Regina edged fourth-ranked Des Moines Christian 1-0 in a Class 2A state semi final Wednesday at Rogers Sports Complex in Fort Dodge.

The eighth-inning single snapped a string of 15 state tournament at bats without a hit for Marth and sends the Regals back to the 2A title game for the fourth consecutive season.

“I just wanted to make contact and get it through a gap somewhere,” Marth said. “It felt really good to finally make contact because I wasn’t do very well at the beginning of the game so it felt really good to finally get it through.”

Defending champion Regina (25-15) will face third-ranked Louisa-Muscatine (37-6) in the 2A title game on Thursday at 8:15 p.m.

Louisa-Muscatine advanced to it’s the state title game in its first trip to state with a 2-1 semifinal win over Central Springs.

“I’m just excited to play them and excited to be back in the championship,” Regina junior Katie Bracken said. “It just gets better every time.”

Bracken allowed four hits in eight shutout innings to outduel Des Moines Christian’s Maren Judisch as Regina pushed its winning streak to eight.

The junior right-hander struck out 12 and improved her personal winning streak to sixth with her fourth shutout in five postseason games.

“I just try to focus on each pitch and try to perform to the best of my ability,” Bracken said. “It feels amazing.”

Bracken allowed just one hit and two baserunners over the final five innings, retiring 16 of the final 18 batters she faced.

The best scoring opportunity Des Moines Christian came in the sixth when Emma Veenstra launched a leadoff double to center field that came a few feet shy of a go-ahead home run.

Bracken responded with back-to-back strikeouts and got out of the inning when Brooke Mumford line out sharply to left field.

“My pitching coach came back from the bullpen and said Katie looks really good today so I felt pretty good after that and it showed,” Regina coach Jake Koolbeck said. “She gave up a few hits, that team averaged 10 hits a game so they can swing it and to hold them down, especially the middle of their order is what Katie does at this time of the year.”

It appeared as if Judisch may escape a similar jam in the eighth.

Carrigan O’Connor led off the inning with a bunt single and moved to second with no out on a stolen base.

Judisch got Bracken to fly out and struck out Paisley Gardner before Marth came up with the biggest hit of her career.

“The whole at bat I was thinking just make contact, just make contact,” Marth said. “My problem lately is I am trying to kill the ball instead of just getting contact so I was thinking about just making contact. When I saw it get through it was just immediate relief.”

A .324 hitter this season Marth was hitless in her last 12 at bats, including a 0-for-4 performance in Monday’s 2A quarterfinal before her game-winning single landed just in front of a charging Ashlyn Bakke in center field.   

“For a second I thought he was going to catch it,” Marth said. “I saw where it was floating too and I knew it was down.”

Marth struck out twice and popped to first in her first three at bats against Judisch, who was stellar for the Lions.

Judisch struck out 14 and allowed just four hits and five walks.

The two-out hit by Marth proved to be the difference.

“We didn’t tell her a ton in the game, I try not to say a whole lot,” Koolbeck said of his conversation with Marth. “I think in a pitchers’ duel like at some point it just comes down to you’ve seen her, you have to see it and try to make the adjustments and she made an adjustment.”

Regina                                 000  000  01  –  1  4  2

Des Moines Christian           000  000  00  –  0  4  0

W – Katie Bracken                 L – Maren Judisch

2B – ICR: Katie Bracken; DMC: Emma Veenstra