Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – Stuck in a 0-for-8 slump over the last three games Annie Gahan needed a hit in the worst way.

“These past couple of games have been rough for me,” Gahan admitted. “I just needed to get a hit.”

The Regina senior shortstop busted out of her slump in the biggest way possible on Monday.

Gahan slugged clubbed a grand slam in a six-run Regina fifth inning as the Regals snapped a 13-game winning streak for Class 3A eighth-ranked Solon (20-6) with a 10-2 win over the Spartans in a non-conference contest in Solon.

The grand slam by Gahan broke open a one-run game as Regina (12-6) picked up its third win over a top-10 3A team in its last four games.

“With these teams that we know are going to be good we come in and we are just all totally in the zone,” Gahan said. “I think we do lack that a little bit with some of the other teams but when we come into big games like this we are totally locked in and it’s fun to see how good we can be.”

Regina swept 3A ninth-ranked West Liberty and fell to sixth-ranked Anamosa last week.

Gahan went hitless in eight at bats in those three games.

On Monday the Regals’ senior leader helped get her team back on track.

Regina loaded the bases in the third when Emma Nibaur and Emma Sueppel reached on back-to-back Solon errors and Courtney Kessler was hit by a pitch.

Gahan made the Spartans pay for the mistakes when she drove a high pitch from Solon freshman Kendall Jensen over the fence in straight away center field that turned a 1-0 Regal lead into a 5-0 advantage.

“I’ve kind of a been in a slump so I just said ‘Annie you have to make contact’,” Gahan said. “It was high and I liked those high pitches so I just brought my hands to it and it worked in our favor.”

Regina added two more runs in the fifth, sending 10 batters to the plate while taking advantage of four Solon errors in the inning.

Freshman Morgan Gahan had a two-run single in the inning that gave the Regals a 7-0 lead.

“Our communication and talk in the dugout and out of the dugout has been really good,” Nibaur said. “Our defense has been great, we are communicating on the field and we have been stringing hits together.”

Gahan’s blast was all the offense Nibaur would need.

The junior right-hander used a variety of off speed pitches to keep Solon off balance all evening, allowing just two runs, one of which was unearned, on six hits against a Solon lineup that was scoring better than 10.7 runs per game during its winning streak.

“My off speed was good,” Nibaur said. “Courtney (Kessler) calls all the pitches and we kept it inside, outside high and low. We were throwing everything to keep them off balance.”

Gahan added a single in a two-run sixth inning and joined Jaelynn Ernst as Regals with two hits on Monday.

Kessler had a hit and reached base all four times while scoring two runs while Abby Clark had a single and scored twice.

“We bring a lot of energy to our games,” Kessler said. “We work hard in practice and show up with a really good mentality ready to get the job done.”

Regina is now 3-3 in its last six games with all of those games coming against ranked teams from larger classes.

“It’s great for us to play against these bigger teams because we come back to our conference even more prepared,” Kessler said. “It just shows everyone what we are capable of and what we can do.”

Hilary Wilson was 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored while Anna Quillin, Sarah Heick, Carly Ellison and Jada Buffington had hits for the Spartans.

Regina                       010  062  1  –  10  9  3

Solon                         000  010  1  –   2   6  6

W – Emma Nibaur                  L – Kendall Jensen

2B – SOL: Hilary Wilson, Sarah Heick

HR – ICR: Annie Gahan

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