Prep softball: Pursuit of state berth continues for Comets

Jul. 18—ELDON — For the second straight year, there was a sense of what might have been at the end of the Cardinal High School softball season.

The good news for the Comets is that might have been centers around winning a regional championship game and earning a trip to the state softball tournament. The goals will remain that lofty heading into next season after another close regional final loss on Monday as eighth-ranked Louisa-Muscatine edged No. 15 Cardinal, 2-0, to earn a trip to Fort Dodge for the Class 2A state tournament.

Just like last year's nine-inning loss at Iowa City Regina, the Comets (22-13) had their chances to put the extra run or two it would have taken to help vault Cardinal softball to state for the first time since 2005. Cardinal outhit Louisa-Muscatine, 9-4, but failed to come up with the timely hits that might have totally changed the trajectory of another close regional championship battle.

"I've replayed scenarios over and over in my mind," Cardinal head softball coach Sabrina Morrison said. "What did I do wrong? How could I have better prepared this group of wonderful ladies? What should I've done differently to get the outcome we all wanted, hoped for and imagined? I told the girls before the game there would be no re-dos or do-overs.

"No matter what happened, win or lose, a piece of their heart would be left on the softball field. The truth of the matter is, a piece of my heart was left on that same field."

Caitlyn Reber, one of the three seniors for the Comets that were trying to close out their prep careers at the state tournament, opened what proved to be her final game last week with a hit to right for the first of two hits in the opening inning for Cardinal off Piper Brant.

Ultimately, however, it would be the first of four innings in which the Comets failed to score despite having a pair of runners on base. Brant countered the nine hits collected by Cardinal with 14 strikeouts, including a strikeout of Kinsey Hissem following two-out hits by Maddy Lawson and Emma Becker that nearly put the first two runs of the game on the board for the Comets.

Life is not easy in any capacity, you have to work for everything you have, nothing is ever given or handed to you," Morrison said. "You have to be willing to put in the time, effort, and stamina to stick it out through the good, bad, even the ugly."

While Louisa-Muscatine connected on just four hits off Cardinal sophomore pitcher Nicoa McClure, the timing of the hits proved to be the difference in the regional final. McKenzie Kissell came through a two-out double in the third inning to score McKenna Hohenadel in the bottom of the third, pushing the first run of the game across the board for the Falcons.

Cardinal stranded the potential tying run on base in the top of the fourth. Brant then doubled the lead, connecting on a solo home run to put Louisa-Muscatine up 2-0 on what proved to be the last hit the Falcons would collect off McClure.

"I was wondering who was going to blink first," Louisa-Muscatine head softball coach Bryan Butler told the Muscatine Journal after the regional final. "She (McClure) threw a heck of a game against us. She had a nice up pitch. It just came down to us getting a couple of key hits."

For the second straight year, Cardinal had their chances late to clinch a trip to state. Last year, the Comets needed outs to secure the trip losing a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the seventh at Iowa City Regina.

This year, the Comets needed hits. Instead, Cardinal left two runners stranded in the fifth as Hissem struck out again with two outs against Brant while Brinlee Ostrander went down swinging as the potential tying run to end the top of the sixth.

In what proved to be her final trip to the plate for the Comets, Reber nearly collected her third hit in four trips to the plate in the top of the seventh roping a ball into right only to be thrown out at first by Kissell from the outfield for the second out of the inning. That play proved to be even bigger as Lawson and Becker, who will each return next season, connected on two-out hits bringing Hissem back up.

After connecting on a hit earlier in the game, but also striking out twice in the next trips to the plate against Brant, Hissem put the ball in play but could not get the ball past the Falcon defense for a timely two-out run-scoring hit. First-team all-Southeast Iowa Superconference selections Hissem, Becker, Ostrander and McClure will all return next season seeking to end what will be an 18-year state tournament drought next season while looking for younger players to replace seniors like Reber, Riley Bears and Lawson.

"This loss will continue to hurt for days, months, even years from now," said Morrison, the SEISC south softball coach of the year. "Through that pain and heartache also comes reward, satisfaction and passion to go do and experience something amazing. The drive to want more, to get bigger, better, stronger and faster. The grit to persevere through the struggle because the reward outweighs all the suffering.

"A new chapter will begin for all of us involved, but it's up to each individual to decide how they want that chapter to go."

— Scott Jackson can be reached at sjackson@ottumwacourier.com. Follow him on Twitter@CourierScott.