AGWSR softball falls short in title game

FORT DODGE – The AGWSR softball team had a nearly-perfect performance on Thursday night.
 
In a high-stakes 1A state championship game, Collins-Maxwell found a rare opportunity to strike and barreled through.
 
Hannah Caple's walk-off single won the 1A title for the Spartans in their first season since splitting with Baxter, defeating the Cougars 1-0.
 
Collins-Maxwell finished the season with no losses against 1A competition – the Spartans' only loss of its 30-1 campaign came to 3A school Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont.
 
AGWSR's season ends at 28-8 after making its second title game appearance in school history following 2015's championship-winning team.
 
MaKenna Kuper, Rachel Sicard and Taryan Barrick were all named to the Class 1A All-Tournament Team. Collins-Maxwell's Mikayla Houge was named team captain.
 
Barrick threw six perfect innings heading into the seventh inning on Thursday, striking out 10 batters. But Alexis Houge broke up the perfect game with a bloop single to start the seventh and ended up on third after an AGWSR error trying to catch her stealing second. Houge was eventually thrown out on a play at the plate two batters later with Sammy Mucino firing the ball to Ali Gerbracht at home, but Caple's single fell safely into the outfield grass to deliver the Spartans a state title.
 
Mikayla Houge struck out 13 Cougars on Thursday, allowing just one hit – Alyssa Hames' single in the fifth inning. AGWSR had two runners reach on a walk and two reach after being hit by pitch and one more on a Spartan error, but those runners and Hames were all left on as missed opportunities against a resilient Collins-Maxwell club.
 
Haley Bakker and Abby Robinson wrapped up their AGWSR high school playing careers on Thursday night, serving key roles this summer on the basepaths. All nine Cougars in Thursday's starting lineup will return for next summer.
 
Check out next week's Grundy Register for a complete look back at AGWSR's week at the state softball tournament with many photos and recaps of the three games in Fort Dodge. Subscribe by calling (319) 824-6958 or clicking here.