By Ryan Stonebraker
Sports Editor
FORT DODGE — Wilton’s hope for a run to the 2018 class 2A state title ended on Monday, July 16, but not their season. Though the Beavers lost in the 2A quarterfinal game to eventual 2A champion No. 3 Louisa-Muscatine, Wilton had another game to play the next day in the consolation round. The Beavers tangled with No. 8 Logan-Magnolia on Tuesday, July 17 on the second day of the state tournament. There, the Beavers fought hard, but could not push the tying run across the plate in a 4-3 loss. Wilton ends their season with an overall record of 25-17. Logan-Magnolia entered the state tournament on a season best 7-game win streak. The Panthers had reached the state tournament in each of the past three seasons finishing second in 2015, third in 2016 and sixth last season. The Panthers were also fifth in 2006 in the school’s other state trip.
The Beavers had more hits in the game seven, and less strikeouts, three, than their 5-hit, 16 strikeout game in the first round. A big improvement according to coach Kortney Denkman.
“For these girls a game is a game, it doesn’t matter the significance, they just want to play. We wanted to better ourselves today from yesterday. We got more hits than yesterday and we took down our strikeouts too. That was our main goal and we did it. We lost another close one-run game, but we learned a lot from this trip,” said Wilton head coach Kortney Denkman.
“We left today knowing that we are a young team and with a desire to get back here next year,” she said.
The Beavers put the rest of the River Valley Conference on notice with their run to state and run once there. The Beavers won 20 games for the second straight season and most wins under coach Kortney Denkman. The Beavers flirted with gaining 20 wins in the 2015 and 2014 seasons, but ended stuck on 19 each year. Logan-Magnolia reached the state tournament last season where they lost to Durant in the quarterfinals, 9-0.
Wilton had a great start to the game, Mallory Lange singled and advanced to third base to batters later. Lange would be left stranded however in the Beaver’s first inning. Logan-Magnolia scored the game’s first run in the bottom of the first. Kylan Straight singled and advanced to second on a Beaver fielding error. Straight went to second on a ground out and scored on a fielder’s choice by Megan Wilson. Wilson and Abbie Carlson would be left stranded in scoring position by the end of the inning, but held a 1-0 lead.
Wilton scored twice in the top of the third inning. Karlie Schult led off with a walk and scored on Kortney Drake’s one-out double. Drake would later score on a Panther error to give Wilton a 2-1 lead, their first of the state tournament.
That lead would be short lived, as the Panthers sent six to the plate in the bottom of the inning and scored twice to grab a 3-2 lead after three innings. Both runs were unearned runs from Wilton errors with two outs in the inning.
Wilton tied the game in the top of the fourth inning. A Karlie Schult RBI single scored Peyton Souhrada who walked to lead off the top of the fourth. Later, Wilton would advance Schult to third and Lange to second, but could not plate either runner.
Logan-Magnolia pushed a run across the plate in the bottom of the fourth inning to set the score at 4-3 on a Kylan Straight 2-out RBI double. Both teams would leave two runners on in scoring position in the next two innings but come away empty of runs. For the game, Wilton left seven runners on base while the Panthers left 6 on base.
Wilton Starter Mila Johnson pitched four innings and took the loss. She gave up four runs on five hits. She walked two and did not record a strikeout. She used 60 pitches. Chloe Wells finished the game, pitching two innings in relief. She gave up only one hit and did not give up a run. She did not walk a batter or strike out any batter. She used 30 pitches.
The Beavers had seven hits in the game by five different players. Two Beavers had multi hit games. Mallory Lange was 2-for-4 with 2 stolen bases and Chloe Wells was 2-for-4. Wells finally got a chance to hit at the state tournament. Wells was intentionally walked three times in the Beavers loss to top-seeded Louisa-Muscatine a day earlier. Kortney Drake, Peyton Souhrada and Karlie Schult each had hits. Drake had a double and RBI and a stolen base. Schult also had a RBI.
Abbie Carlson was the winning pitcher after working seven innings. She gave up seven hits and three runs, all earned. She struck out three Wilton batters and walked three Wilton batters. Kylan Straight was 2-for-4 with a RBI and runs scored to lead Logan-Magnolia batters while Carlson had a double and drove in two runs. Megan Wilson added a RBI single. Straight led the Western Iowa Conference in hits, stolen bases with 44, on-base percentage with .640 and all of class 2A in batting average with a .600 batting clip. Wilson nearly batted .500 herself and was fourth in the Western Iowa Conference in batting with a .474 average. Carlson won her 12th game against four losses and lowered her ERA to 2.03.
The Panthers had reached state with a 2-1 Regional Final win over Mt. Ayr where eighth grader Erikah Rife had a walk-off single to send the Panthers to Fort Dodge. Carlson is the ace of the pitching staff and entered state with an 11-3 record, a 1.75 ERA and 80 strikeouts in 80 innings pitched. The Panthers lost 4-0 to Central Springs in the quarterfinals.
Wilton will graduate two seniors, both starters, in Alexis Maurer and Kali Milder. Milder batted .316 with 36 hits and 20 RBI’s. Milder had nine extra base hits this season. She had an on-base percentage of .361 and a slugging percentage of .412. Milder had a fielding percentage of .953 with only three errors all season in 64 chances.
Maurer batted .315 with 28 hits and 9 RBI’s. She started games at catcher and as an outfielder this year. Maurer had a fielding percentage of .935 with nine errors in 135 chances. Maurer threw out three baserunners as well when she started at catcher.
The Beavers will return their top four hitters and hit leaders next year. Junior Kortney Drake will be a senior after batting .459 with 68 hits, 27 RBI’s, 16 stolen bases and .474 on-base percentage. Chloe Wells will be a sophomore after also collecting over 60 hits with 65 hits. She had a team best .504 batting average, 22 doubles, 9 home runs, 61 RBI’s and slugging percentage with .899.
The Beavers also will return all three of their pitchers from this year including two freshmen and that will be sophomores and an 8th grader who will be a freshman. Mila Johnson was 12-6 in 18 starts and 134 innings pitched her freshman season. She had an ERA of 3.60 with 79 strikeouts. Wells was 11-10 in 20 starts and 123 1/3 innings. She had an ERA of 3.01 with 71 strikeouts. Eighth grader Peyton Souhrada will also return after going 2-1 in four starts before playing the majority of the season at designated hitter. Souhrada was the Beavers opening day starter.
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