Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

FORT DODGE – Ashley Webb was nearly flawless in a sensational state tournament debut on Tuesday.

One mistake from Webb was all it took for Aliya Yanga and third-ranked ADM to spoil that debut.

Yanga hit a solo home run in the fourth inning and tossed a two-hit shutout as ADM edged eighth-ranked Clear Creek Amana 1-0 in a Class 4A state quarterfinal at Harlan Rogers Sports Complex in Fort Dodge.

“I was just thinking keep my head on the ball, it wasn’t an overly big swing I just wanted to make contact,” Yanga said of the solo home run. “I didn’t want to try to do too much.”

Clear Creek Amana dropped to 29-10 with the loss while ADM advanced to the 4A semifinals where it will face No. 2 Western Dubuque (33-7) on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.

Western Dubuque defeated North Polk 5-2 in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.

“We were coming excited to play and we thought we could comeback in this game and that didn’t happen but we fought throughout the entire game,” Clear Creek Amana senior Bailey Olerich said. “I thought it was a great game, it’s hard (to lose) but it was a great game and we didn’t stop fighting.”

It took the solo shot from Yanga and an equally impressive performance from the sophomore left-hander in the circle for ADM (26-10) to get past an incredible effort from Webb and the Clippers.

Webb fanned 12, two in each inning, in her own two-hitter but was undone by one swing from Yanga in the fourth.

Yanga launched a 3-2 pitch foul well beyond the left field fence but just foul before lining the next pitch she saw from Webb over the left center field fence for a solo home run.

“It was a little bit of a miss but she hit the crap out of that ball,” Webb said. “Give her credit.”

The home run was the eighth of the season for Yanga and was the first hit of the game given up by Webb.

“I was right on the plate,” Yanga said. “I just thought it was going to be a pop fly but it went out.”

Webb was impressive from the outset.

She stuck out the first two hitters she faced and escaped a second and third jam in the second with a strikeout of Addison Banse to end the inning.

Webb retired the side in order in the third and allowed just one baserunner, on a one-out single by Banse in the fifth, after the home run by Yanga leading off the fourth.

“We knew going in they were going to be a good hitting team and they were going to be strong all around,” Webb said. “Our plan was to work the zone and see what they would go for and I knew if they hit the ball my defense was behind me.”

Clear Creek Amana had an equally tough time getting anything going against Yanga.

Olerich led off the game with an infield single but that was the only baserunner for the Clippers until a one-out walk to Gabrielle Bedford in the fourth.

The only other hit for Clear Creek Amana was a two-out single to left by Reese Stockman in the seventh inning.

Yanga struck out seven in the complete game win.

Clear Creek Amana will close out the season on Wednesday in a consolation game against North Polk (18-15) at 1 p.m.

“It’s a big accomplishment to get here, we hadn’t been here for so long so it feels good to be here,” Olerich said. “It stinks that we couldn’t keep going but we have a game tomorrow and we will come ready to play for that.”

Clear Creek Amana             000  000  0  –  0  2  0

ADM                                          000  100  x  –  1  2  1

W – Aliya Yanga                                L – Ashley Webb

HR – ADM: Aliya Yanga

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