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Queens of the West

AGWSR’s Taryan Barrick K’s 19 in conference-clinching win at East Marshall

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON - AGWSR pitcher Taryan Barrick, middle, embraces sophomore Rachel Sicard (11) as other teammates gather to celebrate the Cougars' win over East Marshall on Friday to secure the NICL West Division title.

LE GRAND — AGWSR pitcher Taryan Barrick proved why she’s considered not just one of the best pitchers in Class 1A, but one of the best in the state of Iowa.

The junior hurler for the 1A No. 4 Cougars had a career-high 19 strikeouts while throwing a two-hit shutout against 2A No. 13 East Marshall on Friday night in a game that determined the champion of the NICL West Division.

Her team needed every one of those strikeouts as well, as AGWSR (23-6, 11-1) narrowly squeaked out the win on a 1-0 decision, with the lone run coming off a wild pitch in the sixth inning that allowed Alyssa Hames to score from third base.

“One goal is done for us, now we are heading to the next one,” Barrick said after the Cougars secured their first NICL West title since 2013.

AGWSR co-head coach Brenda Drake said with the way the home plate umpire was calling the game and how Barrick was placing her pitches, there was almost nothing the Mustangs (24-7, 10-2) could do.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON - East Marshall catcher Madison Farrington, left, makes the tag on AGWSR freshman Taylor Sperflasge at home plate during the second inning of the Cougars' 1-0 win over the Mustangs to win the NICL West Division title on Friday in Le Grand.

“She was almost unhittable,” Drake said. “When you get that roll-over drop and he’s gonna call the rise ball up like that you are almost unstoppable because what are you going to swing at?”

Barrick started the game by striking out eight of the first nine batters she faced, with East Marshall pitcher Kodie Hoskey knocking down the lone hit in the first three innings.

Her next trip through the order was equally impressive, as she retired all nine batters in order, again striking out eight of them.

There was a bit of intrigue in the seventh, however, as Reagan McIlrath led off the inning for the Mustangs with the second hit of the game, then reached second base on an error in the outfield.

Barrick said having the tying run on second base with no outs wasn’t an ideal situation, but she was able to work through it.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

“It was a little nerve wracking, but I just had to keep my nerves down and focus on my batter,” she said.

And focus on the batter she did, as Barrick struck out Maria Rasmusson, Madison Farrington and Juliana Arifi in succession to close the door on East Marshall’s bid to win or tie the game.

Where the Cougars did struggle was offensively, as Hoskey also had one heck of a performance in the circle. The Mustang sophomore struck out 11 batters and allowed only four hits and the one unearned run, a performance that would land her a win 90 percent of the time.

“It was a classic East Marshall-AGWSR ball game,” Drake said. “Battle of great pitchers, Hoskey pitched a great game tonight too.”

Hames’ score was set up by an interesting decision earlier in the sixth inning. Leadoff hitter MaKenna Kuper came up to the plate with runners on first and second and only one out, but instead of letting the sophomore with eight home runs and a .451 batting average swing away, Kuper chose to sacrifice bunt and move the runners over to second and third.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

“We let that up to her,” Drake said of the move. “She wasn’t getting pitches she could hit and she moved the runners over. That was one of those things where she is capable and when you’ve got [Ali] Gerbracht behind you, she rarely strikes out. So she is going to put the ball in play, so you make them make the play.”

AGWSR had many other opportunities to bust the game wide open, as it left 10 total batters on bases. Much of that was due to some outstanding play in the outfield by Mustangs center fielder Melinda Puumala, who robbed a couple of well-hit balls by Gerbracht that both would have likely plated at least a couple Cougar runners.

East Marshall head coach Jary Hoskey said he couldn’t be more proud of how his girls competed on Friday night.

“We played good defense behind our pitcher and giving up only four hits against that kind of offensive lineup is definitely a win-win for us,” Hoskey said. “We had a boo-boo and they capitalized on it and tonight they were the better team. Give them credit, they deserved to win and they did.”

The Cougars have now won nine of their last 11 games and five-straight NICL West games since taking their only division loss to West Marshall. Much of that has been due to some outstanding performance by Barrick, who has eight shutouts in those last nine wins, including five straight.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

Barrick said it was about midway through the season that she truly found her stride, and her confidence has been building this whole time.

“Especially after our game against Kee, that one really brought me up,” Barrick said. “Knowing our conference is one of the most difficult conferences in Iowa and knowing the level of competition I know I can really bring myself up and it boosts my confidence after every game we have that’s really difficult.”

Drake said winning the conference was the first step on the goal ladder for her team, but doing it in the fashion they did against a team that has always challenge for them atop the division in East Marshall was truly something special.

“It was huge for us to come down here and beat them on their own field,” she said. “A 1-0 ball game on a wild pitch, you take what you can get.”

The Mustangs now end the regular season with the most wins they’ve had since winning the division in 2015, and now Hoskey said the plan is to get their minds ready for a tough road in the regional playoffs.

“If you’d have told me at the beginning of the season in January when we started pitchers and catchers that we would be 24-7 I’d have taken that, and I’d have taken second in the conference knowing the good teams that are in our conference,” Hoskey said. “We have some big goals ahead of us now, we have regionals ahead of us on Tuesday and we will be rested since we don’t play this weekend, and hopefully we will get a couple-three wins and go to the state tournament.”

AGWSR isn’t quite done in the regular season yet as it heads to Gilbertville to play in the Don Bosco Tournament today, starting with a meeting with 3A No. 3 Waterloo Columbus at 12:30 p.m.

AGWSR 1, East Marshall 0

At Le Grand

AGWSR 000 001 0 — 1 4 1

EM 000 000 0 — 0 2 2

Taryan Barrick and Ali Gerbracht; Kodie Hoskey and Madison Farrington. WP–Barrick (22-5). LP–Hoskey (15-5). 2B–AGWSR: Taylor Sperfslage, Gerbracht. LOB–AGWSR 10, EM 2.

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