Beavers fall in Regional Final

 LETTS — The Wilton Beavers traveled to Louisa-Muscatine High School last week. The match-up was one of two top-15 ranked Class 2A teams. No. 13 Wilton traveled to No. 2 Louisa-Muscatine with the winner advancing to the 2020 Class 2A state tournament. There, the Beavers jumped out to a 2-0 lead early, but a 5-run third by the Falcons was too much to overcome for Wilton in a 5-2 loss. The Beavers were playing in their second Regional Final in three seasons and have one state trip (2018) to their credit. The Beavers end the year with a record of 14-4.
 Wilton sent a message to the Falcons that they were there to win the game, scoring the game’s first run in the top of the first inning. Chloe Wells was hit by a pitch to lead off the game and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Wells would advance to third on a passed ball and score on the same passed ball from second base, giving Wilton a 1-0 lead. The Beavers allowed only four Falcon batters to the plate in the bottom of the inning, and no runner advanced past first base.
 In the second inning, Wilton extended their lead to 2-0, which got the Beavers faithful to their feet. There, Ella Caffery smashed a solo home run, her first of the season, over the left centerfield fence to give the Beavers another boost in confidence. In the bottom of the inning, Wilton ran into problems. The Falcons scored all five of their runs in the game, in the second inning sending eight batters to the plate. Johnson got the first batter of the inning out on strikes, Morgan Stecher. The next six batters reached base in a row and scored five runs. The big hit was a 3-run home run by McKenna Hohenadel. Mallory Mashek and Kylee Sanders added RBI singles in the inning.
 Those runs were more than enough for the Falcons. Louisa-Muscatine pitcher Hayley Sanders. Sanders pitched last year for the Falcons and her only loss was in the state championship game to Davenport Assumption. She entered that game 21-0 with 278 strikeouts and a 0.40 ERA. Sanders pitched in relief for the Falcons in the 2018 Class 2A state title game, allowing no runs over the final four innings. Sanders also had the game-winning, walk-off single with the bases loaded to send the Falcons to a 4-3 win over Iowa City Regina for the 2A title that year. Sanders has signed to play softball at the University of Northern Iowa this fall. Sanders struck out five batters including two each in the final three innings to keep Wilton at bay.
 Wilton pitching was equally dominant down the stretch. The Beaver slammed the door on the Falcons the rest of the way, giving them a chance to stay in the game. Johnson and relief pitcher Grace Madlock did not allow a run over the final four Falcon at-bats to keep the score at 5-2. The Falcons did get a runner either to second or third base in each of the innings from 3-6, but Louisa-Muscatine could not plate another run.
 Mila Johnson took the loss after working three innings. She gave up five runs on six hits with one strikeout and one walk. Grace Madlock pitched three innings in relief and shut down the Falcons batting order, preventing more damage done on the scoreboard. She struck out one and scattered five hits.
Wilton’s offense was limited to just three hits by three different players. Chloe Wells, Mila Johnson and Ella Caffery all had hits. Caffrey had a solo home run and drove in the only run of the game.
 Louisa-Muscatine had 11 hits in the game with three players with multi-hit games. The Falcons 9-1-2 hitters of McKenzie Kissel, Kylee Sanders, and McKenna Hohenadel combined for seven of the eleven hits with four RBI’s. Kissel was 3-for-3 with a run scored and a double while Sanders had a RBI and run scored and Hohenadel had a three-run home run and scored once.
 Louisa-Muscatine improved to 18-5 overall and will play unranked Underwood (14-4) Tuesday at 4:30 in a 2A quarterfinal. The winner will play the winner of No. 3 Ogden (19-3) and No. 10 Mount Ayr (10-4). The state semifinals are on Wednesday and the state championship
game is on Friday, July 31 at 5:00 p.m.