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West Marshall grads triumph at next level

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON - Indian Hills Community College freshman and former West Marshall standout Brooke Snider hits a home run to end walk off against Marshalltown Community College on Friday during the first round of the NJCAA Division I Region XI tournament in Marshalltown.

When the four Iowa Community College Athletic Conference Division I softball teams ascended on Marshalltown for the NJCAA Region XI tournament on Friday, two West Marshall standouts were back in their old stomping grounds.

Indian Hills Community College freshman Brooke Snider and Southeastern Community College freshman Katie Price were teammates just a year ago, and both helped their teams to wins on Friday.

Snider and the Warriors picked up an 11-3 victory in the first round against Marshalltown Community College, then they moved on to the championship match with a 1-0 win over Iowa Western.

Price and the Blackhawks lost their opening match to the Reivers, 8-3, but they made a comeback against the Tigers in the consolation round to win, 4-3.

MCC head coach Dominic Ellis, who coached both Snider and Price as an assistant at West Marshall, said he loves to see his former players succeed at the next level.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

“It’s good to see that they were able to move on, take some things from the high school level and compete at the college level,” Ellis said. “It’s nice, do we always want to get them out? You bet I do, but at the end of the day I just want everybody to be successful, whether it’s my kids or kids I coached in the past.”

Price was 1-for-3 with a single against the Tigers, but Snider specifically had a field day against Ellis’ team. After starting 0-for-2, Snider hit a two-run home run in the fourth inning to help Indian Hills take a 6-3 lead, then in the fifth inning she returned to the plate and delivered another two-run bomb to walk off with the 11-3 victory.

“It’s definitely nice to be back,” Snider said of her return to the area. “I was telling the girls before we got here, ‘oh you know, I lived here about 15 minutes away, no big deal.’ It’s nice to be back and nice to get the bats rolling again.”

Snider has been one of the most productive players in the ICCAC this season. Her two home runs against MCC gave her 21 on the season, and she was named ICCAC Division I player of the week twice.

After a successful career playing for the Trojans, Snider said the adjustment to the college game was hard but she has put in the work.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

“I think there’s more time put into in the college game. We have been going all year, hitting all the time, we don’t really get a day off in hitting,” she said. “Then in the winter we were inside doing defensive work every day, and when we were finally able to get outside and get on the dirt, go down to Texas, that was the real start to it and ever since then we’ve been working hard.”

Ellis said seeing how successful Snider has been is absolutely no surprise to him or anyone who was involved at West Marshall.

“We knew it was coming up at West Marshall, we knew she was going to be a great player,” he said. [Indian Hills head coach Lindsey Diehl] has done great things with her too, she’s starting to get under control and more mature a little bit. She’s a tough out and I am rooting for her 100 percent no matter where she ends up because she can go play at the next level.”

Snider said she doesn’t necessarily take too much pride in succeeding against Ellis specifically, but on her walk-off home run on Friday she did take a second to enjoy it.

“We’ve played him a couple times and I always say, ‘you know I like those high pitches!’ but every time I say it to him I see one,” she said. “The last one was just beautiful to me and I was just like, ‘goodbye.'”

Snider and the Warriors will play in the NJCAA Region XI championship game today at 1 p.m. against the winner between Iowa Western and Southeastern, giving Price a chance to face her former teammate with a title on the line.

NJCAA Division I Region XI Softball Tournament

At Marshalltown Community College

Friday, May 3

Indian Hills 11, Marshalltown CC 3

Iowa Western 8, Southeastern 3

Southeastern 4, Marshalltown CC 3, MCC eliminated

Indian Hills 1, Iowa Western 0

Saturday, May 4

Game 5 — Southeastern vs. Iowa Western, 11 a.m.

Game 6 — Indian Hills vs. Game 5 winner, 1 p.m.

Sunday, May 5

Game 7 — Game 6 winner vs. Game 6 loser, 11 a.m. (if necessary)

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