LE GRAND — Madison Farrington hit her fourth home run in the last three games as the Class 2A No. 9 East Marshall softball team overcame an early deficit for a 12-2, five-inning victory over Gladbrook-Reinbeck in Thursday’s NICL West Division finale.

The Mustangs (22-4, 10-2) trailed 2-0 after the first half inning but scored three times in the third, six in the fourth and three more in the fifth to finish off the visiting Rebels (2-13, 1-11). Gladbrook-Reinbeck, fresh off its first conference win under head coach Collin Arndt, got a two-out, two-run single from Jada Schlampp to jump out on top of East Marshall.

After G-R pitcher Rachel Cooley got the first two outs in the fourth, seven-straight Mustangs reached base. The first five were either on errors or walks, but the sixth was Farrington’s three-run round-tripper.

Melinda Puumala added a two-run single and Reagan McIlrath had an RBI double in the seventh to finish the game via run-rule. Kodie Hoskey struck out five in five innings, allowing two earned runs on six hits and a walk.

Taylor Gienger and Alyssa Morgan both had two of G-R’s six hits, but the Rebels couldn’t overcome six errors.

West Marshall finishes off Tigers 11-0

STATE CENTER — Kinnick Christensen struck out seven in a two-hit shutout as the West Marshall baseball team beat South Hardin 11-0 in five innings on Thursday.

The first five batters scored for the Trojans (19-4, 11-0), including a leadoff home run for Jake Tollefson. Christensen had two hits and three RBIs, Kaden Davis had two singles, a double and an RBI, and Ryan Reyerson had a two-run double and three RBIs in all. Josh Larsen doubled and drove in a run as well for West Marshall, which had already clinched the NICL West Division title outright a night earlier.

Mustangs suffer narrow loss to Falcons

GILMAN — The East Marshall baseball team couldn’t overcome errors as the Mustangs fell 3-2 to Aplington-Parkersburg in a cross-NICL contest on Thursday night.

East Marshall (8-14) didn’t allow an earned run as defensive miscues led to Aplington-Parkersburg (7-12) scoring two runs in the sixth and the tiebreaking tally in the seventh.

Kam Monk scattered eight hits across 5 2/3 innings, striking out three while walking one in a no-decision. Fellow eighth-grader Carter Anderson got the loss, allowing one unearned run on one hit in 1 1/3 innings, striking out one.

Five different players had singles for East Marshall offensively: Austin Elliott, Zach Jacobson, Dane Thompson, Kam Hoskins and Logan Bowie. Thompson scored a run and Hoskins had an RBI in the loss.

Trojans take care of South Hardin in 6

STATE CENTER — The West Marshall softball team broke open a tie game with 10 unanswered runs to defeat South Hardin 12-2 in six innings here Thursday night.

Loran Nicholson had an RBI double and Renae Schaper had a two-run single in West Marshall’s four-run fourth, and the Trojans (13-11, 4-8) piled up six runs on five hits to end the game in the sixth. Kayla Cripps, Karisa Blocker, Morgan Cripps and Avery Randall each had run-scoring singles in the sixth to finish off South Hardin (3-17, 1-11).

Kayla Cripps finished 3-for-4 at the plate and Randall had two hits in support of Nicholson, who struck out six in a three-hitter.