Alta-Aurelia’s picture-perfect defense wouldn’t let it.

Fifth-ranked East Marshall got to the cusp of the program’s first trip to the championship game in 25 years but couldn’t get the breakthrough hit to make it happen, and instead fell 2-1 to No. 13 Alta-Aurelia in Wednesday’s Class 2A semifinals at the Iowa Girls High School State Softball Tournament at Harlan Rogers Sports Complex.

The second-seeded Mustangs (32-5) enjoyed six weeks of nothing but winning since its last loss, but Alta-Aurelia (22-9) and its junior pitching standout stood firmly in front of East Marshall’s 19-game streak. Abby Kraemer struck out 11, scattered five hits and three walks and overcame the Mustangs’ last-gasp comeback attempt in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Trailing 2-1 since both teams scored all their runs in the first inning, East Marshall put together one last push to try and find away to get the tying run across. Kayla Mommer led off the bottom of the seventh with a full-count single to right field, and fellow senior Madison Duncan replaced her on the bases.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE - East Marshall freshman Emma Pfantz, left, advances to third base safely on a wild pitch as Alta-Aurelia’s Jessica Flaherty tries too late to tag her out during the fifth inning of Wednesday’s Class 2A state semifinal softball game in Fort Dodge.

Mustang freshman Emma Pfantz tried to put a sacrifice bunt down, but instead it popped into the air and right into the waiting glove of Alta-Aurelia third baseman Jessica Flaherty. She promptly fired to first to double off Duncan, and Kraemer got Melinda Puumala on strikes to end the threat, the game and East Marshall’s hopes of moving on to the finals.

“It’s pretty hard because that’s been our end goal the whole season,” said Mustang senior Maria Rasmusson, “but it’s more than we’ve had the past four years and I’m really thankful for that. I know it’s not first (place) but we’re here and we can say we’re one of the eight teams out of 2A that got here and we’re playing for third place.”

East Marshall meets No. 9 Mount Ayr (26-3) in tonight’s 7 p.m. game to decide third place, while Alta-Aurelia squares off with top-ranked North Linn (41-4) for the state title at 8:15 p.m.

“This is something special, this is a dream-come-true right now,” Alta-Aurelia head coach David Turnquist said. “That’s a good team we beat and we knew we were going to be pressed. You get to this level, everybody’s good.

“Pitching was the key. [Kraemer’s] riseball was working. We had to get ahead in the count and if we didn’t, they were going to do something with it.”

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE - East Marshall head coach Jary Hoskey, left, watches intently as senior Maria Rasmusson (10) slides safely around the tag by Alta-Aurelia’s Jessica Flaherty during the third inning of Wednesday’s game in Fort Dodge. Rasmusson advanced from first to third on a bunt single by Reagan McIlrath.

If pitching was the key, then defense was the lock it fit into — or didn’t. East Marshall made two errors in the top of the first inning, allowing the Warriors to scratch out two unearned runs against Mustang junior Kodie Hoskey.

Flaherty led off the game with a grounder that was misplayed, but Brittany Turnquist’s potential hit down the left-field line was robbed by a running catch by Pfantz. Kraemer dropped a single into left and Hoskey hit Angela Lopez on the elbow to load the bases, but got Jessica Larson to pop out.

Shea Peterson’s squibber to second base beat Rasmusson’s flip to first, and the ball got away from Juliana Arifi to allow Kraemer’s courtesy runner to score as well.

East Marshall manufactured a run without the benefit of a hit in the home half of the first, as Puumala took a four-pitch walk, stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on Reagan McIlrath’s groundout.

And even though they got five hits the rest of the way against Kraemer, the Mustangs simply could not break through — stranding six runners on base before the heartbreaking sequence of events in the bottom of the seventh.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

“Hindsight’s always 20/20, but I thought with Duncan on I probably should have had her just straight steal and I wish I would have now,” said East Marshall head coach Jary Hoskey, “but you take that chance of taking a baserunner away. If we get that bunt down, we’ve got the top of the lineup coming up, but as it turns out it wasn’t in the cards.”

Pfantz was unable to get on top of Kraemer’s 0-1 riseball and the result was disastrous for East Marshall.

“That was a riseball she bunted,” coach Turnquist said. “A round bat and a round ball, it’s tough to hit.”

So was Kraemer. The Dordt College commit limited the Mustangs to five singles, although every out seemed louder than the last. East Marshall scalded a few balls that the Warriors’ defense managed to track down, including Arifi’s liner toward the gap in right-center field in the bottom of the sixth.

“We had nice hits, we had some hard-hit balls but they caught it,” coach Hoskey said. “Their center fielder (Turnquist) is pretty good, but then Puumala made some nice catches out in the field to help us out as well.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

“All in all, I’ll take 32-5, and hopefully we can be 33-5 after [Thursday].”

Puumala spoiled a deep fly ball by Lopez in the top of the fifth, backtracking to the fence to make the catch, and then she saved a run with her diving grab of Kraemer’s sinking liner in the seventh.

“I think we had nerves at the beginning of the game and I think after we got through the first inning we were ready to go and our defense played better after that,” said Kodie. “It was nerve-racking, but it’s awesome. The fans were loud, it was a great atmosphere to play in, but we just weren’t ready for it. We were prepared but we just had the nerves and they didn’t show any on their team.”

East Marshall’s only two defensive miscues were in the first inning, while Alta-Aurelia didn’t make any. The Mustangs’ game simply came down to missed opportunities.

“Leaving runners on base probably costed us the game, but there’s nothing we can do now,” said Rasmusson.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

East Marshall left two runners stranded in the second, third and fifth innings, going 0-for-6 at the plate with somebody in scoring position. Kraemer even got Mustang senior slugger Madison Farrington — who is second in all classes with 66 RBIs — twice with runners just 60 feet away from home plate.

“We were really afraid of [Farrington] to be honest with you,” said coach Turnquist. “Abby got ahead and [Farrington] swings, so we knew we had to be on the edge or throw the rise. We thought about throwing the changeup, but she looks like the kind of hitter who can adjust to that.”

East Marshall’s five hits instead came from Rasmusson, McIlrath, Arifi, Mommer and Pfantz. Five different players accounted for Alta-Aurelia’s hits, too, against Hoskey, who has yet to allow an earned run in two state tournament games.

“I think we’re ready to play after this game,” Kodie said, looking ahead to tonight’s third-place game. “I think we’ll definitely have motivation and not nerves anymore, so I think we’ll be ready to play and get that third place.”

Alta-Aurelia 2, East Marshall 1

A-A 200 000 0 — 2 5 0

EM 100 000 0 — 1 5 2

Abby Kraemer and Alli Magnusson; Kodie Hoskey and Madison Farrington. W–Kraemer (21-9). L–Hoskey (22-4). 2B–AA: Brittany Turnquist. LOB–AA 8, EM 6.

Iowa Girls High School State Softball Tournament

At Rogers Sports Complex, Fort Dodge

CLASS 1A

Quarterfinals

Monday, July 22

Collins-Maxwell 4, Le Mars Gehlen 0

Newell-Fonda 7, Lynnville-Sully 5

Lisbon 1, Wayne 0

Clarksville 5, Bishop Garrigan 0

Consolation First Round

Tuesday, July 23

Lynnville-Sully 5, Le Mars Gehlen 4

Wayne 10, Bishop Garrigan 0 (5 innings)

Championship Semifinals

Wednesday, July 24

Collins-Maxwell 9, Newell-Fonda 1

Clarksville 1, Lisbon 0

Thursday, July 25

Third-place game

Newell-Fonda (38-6) vs. Lisbon (33-7), 5 p.m.

Championship

Collins-Maxwell (27-1) vs. Clarksville (33-1), 6 p.m.

CLASS 2A

Monday, July 22

North Linn 6, Wapello 0

Mopunt Ayr 3, Dyersville Beckman 2 (8)

East Marshall 4, Ogden 0

Alta-Aurelia 2, Central Springs 0

Consolation First Round

Tuesday, July 23

Dyersville Beckman 5, Wapello 3

Ogden 12, Central Springs 3

Championship Semifinals

Wednesday, July 24

North Linn 8, Mount Ayr 1

Alta-Aurelia 2, East Marshall 1

Thursday, July 25

Third-place game

Mount Ayr (26-3) vs. East Marshall (32-5), 7 p.m.

Championship

North Linn (41-4) vs. Alta-Aurelia (22-9), 8:15 p.m.

CLASS 3A

Monday, July 22

Davenport Assumption 3, Algona 2

Waterloo Columbus 8, Albia 5

Tuesday, July 23

Louisa-Muscatine 10, Mount Vernon 6

West Liberty 10, Treynor 0, 5 innings

Consolation First Round

Tuesday, July 23

Algona 5, Albia 4

Wednesday, July 24

Treynor 7, Mount Vernon 6

Championship Semifinals

Wednesday, July 24

Davenport Assumption 6, Waterloo Columbus 0

Louisa-Muscatine 10, West Liberty 2

Friday, July 26

Third-place game

Waterloo Columbus (36-5) vs. West Liberty (29-6), 2:30 p.m.

Championship

Davenport Assumption (40-2) vs. Louisa-Muscatine (35-4), 3:30 p.m.

CLASS 4A

Quarterfinals

Tuesday, July 23

Carlisle 10, Denison-Schleswig 1

West Delaware 8, Independence 2

North Scott 3, Oskaloosa 2 (8 innings)

Charles City 4, Dallas Center-Grimes 3

Consolation First Round

Wednesday, July 24

Independence 3, Denison-Schleswig 0

Dallas Center-Grimes 1, Oskaloosa 0

Championship Semifinals

Wednesday, July 24

Carlisle 7, West Delaware 6 (8 innings)

North Scott 3, Charles City 2 (9 innings)

Friday, July 26

Third-place game

West Delaware (31-11) vs. Charles City (36-4), 4:45 p.m.

Championship

Carlisle (37-3) vs. North Scott (28-14), 5:45 p.m.

CLASS 5A

Quarterfinals

Tuesday, July 23

Waukee 8, Ottumwa 0

Johnston 3, Indianola 2

Valley 3, Fort Dodge 0

Iowa City High 10, Cedar Rapids Kennedy 2

Consolation First Round

Wednesday, July 24

Indianola 4, Ottumwa 1

Fort Dodge 8, Cedar Rapids Kennedy 0

Championship Semifinals

Wednesday, July 24

Waukee 3, Johnston 1

Valley 4, Iowa City High 2

Friday, July 26

Third-place game

Johnston (35-9) vs. Iowa City High (35-8), 7 p.m.

Championship

Waukee (40-3) vs. Valley (31-10), 8 p.m.

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