That streak didn’t come to an end on Monday either, as the Knights rolled to their 42nd-straight victory with a 10-0 win over the Trojans in six innings at the Rogers Sports Complex.

Though his team wasn’t able to score a run against the top-ranked team in 3A, West Marshall head coach Todd Verwers said his girls had the right approach to their opponent.

“Sometimes when you are faced with a situation you aren’t accustomed to, it will take you a couple times to get out of that situation, but we didn’t have time to get out of it,” Verwers said after the loss. “We were dead-on with everything we were trying to do, we knew we needed to lay off the rise ball but we didn’t do a very good job of that. They are for real, I’ll tell you I have seen 4A and 5A teams and that team can compete with anybody, I don’t care who you are.”

Davenport Assumption pitcher Nicole Timmons was outstanding in her 5 1/3 innings, allowing just one hit in the sixth inning to Trojans junior Brooke Snider and striking out 11 total. It was just the luck, or in this case un-luck, of the draw that pitted West Marshall (33-7) against the Knights (42-1) in the first round, but Verwers said in these cases you just have to roll with the hand you are dealt.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON • Trojans shortstop Katie Price, left, corrals a throw to second while Davenport Assumption’s Sophie Van Severen (1) slides in for a steal during the first inning of the Knights’ win over West Marshall on Monday night.

“It’s a tough draw but we knew what they were about when we came up here,” Verwers said. “We saw game tape of four games, we knew pretty much what their lineup was going to be, we had our coverages where they needed to be as far as all the little intricacies and the short game they try to do. We just had to make the plays, we had a few errors that kind of snowballed a couple innings and when you extend innings for a team like that that’s productive 1-9, there is no give-me out anywhere.”

West Marshall uncharacteristically committed five errors in the loss, which greatly contributed to the lopsided score. Pitcher Kallie Malloy had mixed results on the mound, going all six innings for the Trojans and giving up eight earned runs off 12 hits and striking out six.

Verwers said he continues to be impressed with Malloy’s mental toughness, as she battled back from giving up three runs in the first, including a two-run dinger to Carlie Sammon.

“I couldn’t be more impressed with how Kallie has handled herself, the way she has gone through this year and the approach she has taken,” he said. “She will recover from this, I am sure there are some pitches she’d like to get back and I’m sure there are some ground balls our infielders would like to get back, but Kallie will recover and she will move one. We’ve got two games left, we are still building on her legacy a little bit as well as everybody else who is graduating. We will come right back on Wednesday and show up and play.”

Fortunately for the Trojans faithful, this loss does not spell the end of the season for West Marshall softball, as the girls turn around and face Humbodt in the first round of the consolation bracket on Wednesday morning.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON • West Marshall third baseman Brooke Snider swings at a pitch during the Trojans’ 10-0 loss to Davenport Assumption. Snider recorded the only hit of the game for West Marshall.

While offense was hard to come by on Monday evening, the final inning for West Marshall saw the only hit of the night and the only time the team had two baserunners. Verwers said his team will try to build off that momentum to close out the game in their consolation matches Wednesday.

“We will take that last inning there and we will build off it. We will talk about the good things we did, the productive things that we did, and the at bats that we had that were quality,” he said. “We have to just reiterate that every pitch is important, every at bat is important and don’t just go up there telling yourself to swing no matter what. You only get one run for a home run, you have to play within yourself and just chip away if you need to. I have a feeling we will be OK Wednesday.

“Usually when we face a little adversity we show up and do well the next time we are out. We will be back Wednesday morning ready to go.”

The Trojans consolation match against Humboldt on Wednesday is scheduled for a 10 a.m. first pitch on the Buena Vista University Diamond. No matter the outcome, West Marshall will play again at 2 p.m. Wednesday afternoon.

CLASS 3A

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

Quarterfinals

Monday, July 17

Dav. Assumption 10, West Marshall 0, 6 inn.

Center Point-Urbana 14, Humboldt 2, 5 inn.

Tuesday, July 18

T-R GRAPHIC

Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley (32-2) vs. Albia (28-18), 11 a.m.

Sioux Center (23-6) vs. Mount Vernon (28-15), 11:30 a.m.

Consolation Semifinals

Wednesday, July 19

West Marshall (33-7) vs. Humboldt (31-5), 10 a.m.

Consolation Finals

Wednesday, July 19

Fifth-place game, 2 p.m.

Seventh-place game, 2 p.m.

Championship Semifinals

Thursday, July 20

Davenport Assumption (42-1) vs. Center Point-Urbana (30-10), 3:30 p.m.

Championship Finals

Friday, July 21

Third-place game, 5:30 p.m.

Championship, 7:09 p.m.