Though BCLUW — who made its first appearance in the IGHSAU rankings at Class 2A No. 15 on Thursday — came in looking to make it seven straight, it was the No. 13 Mustangs who would walk out victorious, quenching the red-hot Comets with a 3-1 victory.

East Marshall Kodie Hoskey was the main extinguisher, as she pitched a complete game while allowing just three hits and one earned run while striking out eight BCLUW batters.

After the win, Hoskey said had a felt good going into the game, not just in her own ability but in her team’s ability to get to Comets pitcher Bailey Ashton.

“I believed our team could hit the ball off of Bailey and we did that,” Hoskey said. “We got the three runs and it boosted me up a little bit with confidence. We had good energy in the dugout and everything.”

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON Ñ East Marshall pitcher Kodie Hoskey prepares to deliver the ball to home plate during the MustangsÕ 3-1 victory over BCLUW in NICL West Division play on Thursday. Hoskey pitched the complete game, allowing just three hits and one run while striking out eight.

Though Ashton picked up the loss, it was by no means a bad outing for the BCLUW (10-6, 4-3) junior. Ashton finished allowing seven hits and three runs in the contest while striking out nine Mustangs (14-4, 7-1).

Comets co-head coach Ashlee Higgins said they couldn’t have asked for a better effort from their pitcher.

“Bailey has been doing amazing for us and we are really proud of the way she has been working for us this summer,” Higgins said.

It was truly a pitcher’s dual for the first three innings, as Hoskey and Ashton had each allowed only two hits and no runs in the first three frames of work.

Then in the fourth the Mustangs finally got to Ashton, with Madison Farrington leading off with a single and Hannah Birks driving in the co-ahead run with a fielder’s choice ground ball. Hoskey then added a little insurance with a single that drove in Birks and gave East Marshall a 2-0 advantage.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

Mustangs head coach Jary Hoskey said his girls were patient at the plate, and that’s what led to them solving the Ashton riddle.

“We talked about this in practice before the game, that we had to swing at our pitch and not hers,” coach Hoskey said. “She is an awful good pitcher and she comes from the left side, which you don’t see that very often. This is an awful good softball team tonight, so we are very fortunate to get a good win from them. We put the ball in play when we needed to, we hit good pitches that were our pitch and not hers, and we were lucky enough to get a win.”

Juliana Arifi added to the East Marshall lead with an RBI single in the fifth inning that drove in Reagan McIlrath, and for three-straight innings Kodie Hoskey retired three-straight Comet batters.

Heading to the top of the seventh, BCLUW trailed 3-0 and was on its last three outs, but the Comets never stopped clawing for victory. Kiersten Kruse stung a ball that Mustangs’ center fielder Melinda Puumala couldn’t quite get to as the lead-off hitter, then Easton Swanson brought Kruse in with a ground ball that made it a 3-1 game with only one out.

Cate Nason was next up to bat for the Comets and, like Kruse, she also sent a deep ball to right field, which was nearly caught but ultimately dropped by Madison Duncan, giving BCLUW a runner on second with still two outs remaining.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

Hoskey would walk Kaylie Goecke next to put the tying run on base, but those runs never got the chance to score as Lili Wilson struck out and Ashton popped out to end the inning.

“I was trying to bear down, throw my hardest and throw every pitch I could,” Hoskey said for how she closed out the game. “Have my defense make plays behind me, like they did, and I counted on them even though they dropped those two, I was still confident in them.”

Even though the Comets didn’t pull out the win, Higgins said she and fellow co-head coach Megan Yantis were thrilled with the fight their girls showed.

“We told them we were really proud of them for never giving up,” Higgins said. “They never lost their fire, they never lost their drive to want to win, they never waved the white flag. We told them we were proud of them for that.”

This was an important game in the NICL West landscape, especially with 1A No. 5 AGWSR losing to West Marshall on Thursday night. Now the Mustangs and Cougars are locked in a virtual tie for the top spot in the division, while BCLUW drops back to three games back, though it still holds third place.

Coach Hoskey said as long as his girls continue to build on what makes them be successful, they should have a chance for a divisional crown.

“We have to take care of business obviously, we don’t have another conference game until next Wednesday when we go to Grundy, but we have some big games ahead of us,” he said. “We just need to keep playing our softball, make sure we are hitting good pitches and when they hit our pitch make sure we play good defense. So far we have done that and hopefully we can do that this weekend as well.”

As for how the Comets bounce back from this one, Yantis and Higgins said there is a lot their girls can build off from this loss.

“We have a big weekend coming up where we are playing some tougher schools so playing a team like East Marshall gets us ready to play those bigger schools and those tough competition,” Yantis said. “This was a great game tonight and it gave us some things to work on to be ready for the weekend.”

“We told the girls the only way this game becomes a tragedy is if we don’t take something and learn from it,” Higgins said.

Up next East Marshall will host South Tama tonight for a non-conference meeting, then it heads to Oskaloosa on Saturday for a tournament. BCLUW will next be in action tonight as well, facing off against ADM at 1:30 p.m. for the start of a two-day tournament hosted by Roland-Story over the weekend.

East Marshall 3, BCLUW 1

At Le Grand

BCLUW 000 000 1 — 1 3 4

E. Marshall 000 210 X — 3 7 1

Bailey Ashton and Lili Wilson; Kodie Hoskey and Madison Farrington. WP–Hoskey. LP–Ashton. 3B–BCLUW: Kiersten Kruse. LOB–BCLUW 4, EM 8.