STATE CENTER — Rachel Randall wanted to improve on her last couple appearances at the plate.

“I wasn’t watching for the ball that I really need to hit,” Randall said.

Her fourth time around in the lineup, the freshman on the West Marshall softball team found what she had been looking for.

She had the pleasure of watching that long-awaited pitch go over the fence for a walk-off two-run home run to cap off a five-inning, 14-4 victory over Nevada.

On a full count, Randall smashed it to left-center, landing in the lap of Rachel’s very happy parents for her first career home run.

“I just turned on it and it felt really good,” Randall said. “Our energy was up tonight and when they switched pitchers after the first couple of innings, we knew we were doing something good.”

Randall finished 2-for-4 at the plate with three RBI.

“She’s a kid who really strives to be perfect,” said West Marshall head coach Jake Randall, the cousin of Rachel and twin sister Riley. “We just keep telling her to believe in herself and continue to get a good swing on the ball and she got one tonight that was wonderful. … She loves to put in the extra effort so I was extremely excited for her to end things on a great note tonight for us.”

West Marshall had 14 hits. Josie deNeui cleaned up the bases going 3-for-4 with four RBI, Lillian Fischer was 2-for-4 with three RBI, Amelia Ranson had two RBI and Jenna Randall and Jillian Karsjen had one RBI each. Ciera Randall was 3-for-3 with two runs — Jenna and Ciera are Jake’s daughters.

“The girls had great at-bats up and down the lineup,” Jake Randall said. “We’ve really continued to progress. They’ve continued to battle, continue to buy in and are attacking the ball out front and really having some key hits. We’ve been flirting with that early game throughout the season here so it was nice to get it done here.”

West Marshall eighth-grader Aubree Greenwood struck out three with one walk and four runs on five hits in the circle for West Marshall.

Greenwood has split pitching time this season with sophomore Mara Tarbell, and the Trojans are getting freshman Taylor Thomas back in the rotation as well, seeing her first full action against Lynnville-Sully in Tuesday’s 8-5 victory.

“I feel like we’ve got three strong pitchers that we can throw out there,” Randall said. “And our defense, I’d put us up against anybody right now. If we keep that pitching going we can be dangerous.”

The Trojans climbed to 9-9 overall and are 4-6 in the Heart of Iowa Conference. West Marshall started the season 2-6 and have now won three in a row and five of the last seven games.

“We weren’t playing as well as we could have in those first few games,” said Rachel, who was decked out with the “home run hitter” golden LED cowboy hat and the “best effort” chain after Wednesday’s game. “We’ve definitely improved our hitting and everything in general. … This team is wonderful. We’re always loud, talking, even the JV kids after they got done playing a hard game, they’re always cheering for us.”

West Marshall will hold its Rose Festival tournament on Saturday in State Center, beginning at 1 p.m. against Shenandoah. The Trojans will close the night out under the lights against Marshalltown at 7 p.m.; East Marshall will also compete in the tournament.

Shenandoah is making the three-hour trip under the tutelage of head coach Aaron Burdorf, a former middle school history educator and baseball coach at West Marshall who is now the K-8 principal at Shenandoah and will be arriving Friday for an overnight stay with the team.

“We’re looking forward to a nice 3A matchup there,” Jake Randall said, “and it’s always great to have an opportunity to play the schools in Marshall County.

“Back when I was in high school, they always had the late game under the lights at the Rose Festival and when I came back for the program last year my goal was to bring that back, and this is the second year we’ll be doing that. We’re looking forward to our girls being able to end the night on a positive note.”