Your Prep Sports

A year ago West Branch pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the postseason when it stunned defending state runner-up Regina in a regional quarterfinal.

The Bears nearly repeated that feat on Friday.

West Branch built a 4-0 lead and pushed second-ranked Louisa-Muscatine to the brink before falling 6-5 in eight innings in a Class 2A, Region 8 semifinal in Letts.

The Class 3A runner-up last season and 2A state champion in 2018, Louisa-Muscatine (17-5) advanced to the Region 8 title game where it will face Wilton (14-3) on Monday at 7 p.m.

West Branch closed the season (7-9).

The Bears took a 2-0 lead in the first inning when Nicki Henson singled leading off the game and Mackenzie Heise hammered a two-run homer.

West Branch tacked on two more runs in the third with Henson and Maddy Hatfield providing singles as the Bears took a 4-0 lead.

Louisa-Muscatine pulled even with four runs in the bottom of the inning and the two teams traded runs in the fourth.

West Branch took a 5-4 lead when Taylor Thein reached on a bunt single and scored on a Sasha Koenig RBI single.

Louisa-Muscatine tied the score in the bottom of the inning and it remained tied until the Falcons took advantage of a pair of Bear errors to score the winning run in the eighth.

Henson had two hits and scored twice to lead West Branch while Heise drove in a pair with her fifth home run of the season.

Koenig had a hit and drove in a run and Thein had a hit and scored a run.

Kaiya Luneckas took the loss for West Branch allowing six runs, three earned, on four hits while striking out nine and walking four.

West Branch               202  100  00  –  5  6  5

Louisa-Muscatine     004  100  01  –  6  4  2

W – Hailey Sanders                L – Kaiya Luneckas

HR – WB: Mackenzie Heise

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