Dale dumps Stroud, earns 8th straight title appearance
It took just one pitch to get the final out.
Dale short stop Emilia Edelman received the ground ball and fired it over to Karson Griggs who was standing at first base. After the throw beat the runner, G rig gs tossed the ball in the air and the celebration started.
The players jumped together at first base as the cow bells rang and horns blared from the Dale fans on Field 4 of the USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium.
With a 7-3 win over Stroud on Friday afternoon, Dale advanced to its eighth straight state title appearance.
“You're excited and you're jumping up and down but you got to tell your girls, 'don't celebrate too much because we got one more to play,'” Dale coach Andy Powell said. “We're excited to be there, not many people get there. So we've been blessed but we got one more to play.”
Dale put the pressure on early, producing two base runners in the first inning. Ad die Bell delivered by hitting the ball just over the third baseman's head to score one runner. Dale then rode the momentum the rest of the way, never seceding the early lead.
Bell , Sam Hartman and Danyn Long all drove in runs for Dale. The Pirates combined for 18 hits on Friday, one better than Thursday's outing of 17. But even with the stellar hitting performance, Powell said it was the Pirates' defense that carried the team to the win.
“The key to the game is we had 18 hits, left 13 on base,” Powell said. “That's usually a sign of disaster when you leave that many on and somebody's trying to upset you. But we hung in there, Addie hung in there, defense hung in there.”
Dale will take on Latta in the Class 2A state title game at Field 1 of the USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium at 4 p.m. on Saturday. After coming up just short last year, Dale will try to win the state title for the fifth time in eight tries. “That says something about our program,” Powell said. “To go eight times you can't just have one group. You have to have several groups. You have to have good players on the bench for a long period of time.
“That's almost three separate groups if you're going to the finals that many times. So I'm super proud of our group for accomplishing that no matter what happens tomorrow.”