CONRAD — BCLUW senior Klayre Gallentine was reprimanded for her facial expressions, so she held her emotions in check the best she could.

When she couldn’t control her pitches and was replaced in the circle, she finally got to smile again.

Gallentine was glad to give way to freshman Eden Ladehoff for the final three outs, helping the Comets finish off conference rival GMG for a 5-3 victory in Wednesday’s Class 1A Region 8 softball game at Dave Lee Field.

BCLUW (20-7) won its regular-season showdowns with GMG, prevailing 3-1 and 4-3 in Iowa Star Conference South Division action. When the postseason brackets were revealed, Comet head coach Megan Yantis was given pause.

Her team’s fast start, however, changed that in a hurry.

Seniors Cassie Nason and Gallentine greeted GMG freshman pitching standout Riah Boege with back-to-back doubles to start the bottom of the first inning, and the Comets got two runs right out of the gate. Gallentine’s courtesy runner Ceanna White was cut down at home plate by GMG left fielder Addison Elmore on Raegan Crawford’s bloop single, but Crawford scored from second base when the Comets were awarded the resultant play on an illegal pitch by Boege.

The pitch got away from Wolverines catcher Skyler Murty, and her throw to try and get Crawford at third base went astray, giving BCLUW the early 2-0 lead.

“It’s hard to beat a team three times,” Yantis said. “They’re a young team, but if you give them a little hope they’ll go a long ways and you saw that in this game tonight. I knew once they got started that it could be trouble, but I’m glad that we were able to step up and shut it down right away.”

The Comets tacked on two more runs in the third, thanks to a leadoff single for Nason and a walk to Gallentine. Nason scored on Ladehoff’s groundout, and White came across on Crawford’s groundout.

BCLUW went in front 5-0 with another run in the fourth, sparked by a leadoff double by Morgan Bergman. She advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on Sarah Garber’s sacrifice fly to right field.

“Just seeing how they played on Monday and some quotes that they said kind of got us fired up and we were ready to come out here and do our thing,” said Gallentine.

The young Wolverines, with only one junior and the rest freshmen and eighth-graders, caught their glimmer of hope in the top of the fifth. Elmore walked and went to third on a one-out single by Tatum Jones, and Madison Bryant plated GMG’s first run with a sacrifice fly.

GMG kept coming. Sash led off the sixth with a walk and Murty hit a one-out double. Rhianna Murty, the lone junior, plated a run with a groundout, and Skyler scored on a wild pitch to make it 5-3.

The Wolverines got the tying run to the plate, but Grace Mathern was thrown out trying to steal second for the final out of the sixth.

Gallentine walked Elmore to start the seventh, and Yantis emerged from the dugout to give Ladehoff the ball for the final three outs. She fully understood that assignment, striking out all three batters she faced to close out the victory.

Gallentine was warned by the umpiring crew for how she reacted to some ball-strike calls, threatening ejection, so the senior kept her cool until she didn’t have to anymore.

Three batters later, she was celebrating the win with her squad, and it didn’t matter to her that she wasn’t in the pitcher’s circle anymore.

“It wasn’t super hard,” Gallentine said of getting pulled in the seventh. “I knew I was sweating, so we brought in our closer — I love her to death. She’s like my little me. So it really just works for her to come in and finish.

“I knew the umps were getting frustrated at me and I was frustrated with them, so it was just easier to step away from that little mindset that was happening.”

Gallentine finished allowing three runs on three hits and six walks while striking out 10 for the win, and Ladehoff earned the save.

Nason had three of BCLUW’s eight hits, including two doubles, and scored twice. Bergman was 2-for-3 with a double and a run, and Gallentine added an RBI double. Garber singled in the sixth as the Comets got more runs in this game (5) than in either of their previous meetings with GMG this season.

The Wolverines matched their best offensive performance with three runs, but three hits simply wasn’t enough. Boege, Skyler Murty and Piper Jones accounted for GMG’s hits.

Boege gave up three earned runs on eight hits and three walks while striking out three. She had struck out nine and 13 Comets in their previous meetings this season, but BCLUW was out to make contact and force GMG’s young defense to make the plays.

Productive outs proved useful for the Comets, too, as three of the team’s run-scoring plays were either groundouts or a sacrifice fly.

The Wolverines couldn’t consistently do the same, striking out 13 times in the game. Gallentine struck out 13 in their first meeting this season, while Ladehoff retired 19 herself in the 4-3 victory.

“We didn’t start off as strong as we would have liked,” said GMG head coach Autumn Sash. “It was really a battle of who wanted it more. We fought hard until the end … but it just didn’t fall for us tonight.”

The Wolverines matched their highest win total (11) from the last decade and don’t graduate a single player from their roster. Coach Sash was ready to run it back with the Comets right away.

“They want to be here, they want to put in the effort, they want to go that extra mile,” she said of her squad. “So I’m ready for next year. Like, I’m ready to battle these guys again.”

Yantis won’t have to worry about that for a while, but she confessed she will be worried.

“I told [coach Sash] there at the end ‘you’ve got a really good group there,’ and next year they’re going to be a tough team,” Yantis said. “When the brackets came out, I didn’t really want to play them again because they’re a good ball club and they’re going to be a good ball club for the next couple of years. They’re not going to go away.”

The Comets go on, however, into the regional semifinals. BCLUW will face No. 11 Ankeny Christian Academy (16-2) on Friday night at North Polk Middle School in Alleman.