T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE - East Marshall junior Ashtyn Wheater (19) celebrates from the on-deck circle after teammate Sophia Adkins scored the game-ending run in the sixth inning of Wednesday’s Class 2A Region 8 quarterfinal softball game in LeGrand.

LE GRAND — By the time West Fork found its footing, the Warhawks were already in a free fall.

Ashtyn Wheater and Libby Atcher homered, Peyton Grabenbauer struck out 11 and the East Marshall softball team walloped West Fork 13-5 in six innings in Wednesday’s Class 2A Region 8 quarterfinal.

The host Mustangs (22-9) pounded out 18 hits and scored in five of their six at-bats to blast through to Friday’s regional semifinals back in LeGrand. East Marshall will entertain Waterloo Columbus (17-14) in an all-North Iowa Cedar League semifinal round in Region 8 — eighth-ranked Wapsie Valley (16-7) hosts Grundy Center (18-8) in the other final four matchup.

East Marshall claimed its playoff opener with relative ease, scoring twice in the first inning, five times in the second and once more in the third to capture an 8-0 lead.

West Fork (15-8) compiled four of its six hits in the fourth inning to get on the board with a four-spot, but East Marshall was up to the challenge.

Wheater connected for a two-run home run in the bottom of the fifth to help the Mustangs claim an 11-4 lead, and she was on deck when Miyah Grabenbauer’s fielder’s choice grounder got Sophia Adkins across as the game-ending run in the home half of the sixth.

Needing a triple to hit for the cycle, Wheater wasn’t worried about getting one last chance to swing the bat.

“I mean, that would be nice, but I’m not that fast,” said Wheater, who finished 3-for-3 with a double, a home run and five RBIs. “I was just focusing on what I’m doing in the moment, nothing big, just a base hit to help us.”

The Mustangs ended the game via mercy rule before Wheater could get another chance to bat, but she was far from the only productive hitter on the team. Eight different East Marshall players got at least one hit as the team totaled 18. Gianna Boswell was 4-for-5 with a double, an RBI and three runs scored, while Atcher was 3-for-3 with a double and her team-leading fifth home run as well — a two-run shot that capped the Mustangs’ five-run second.

“All in all, the offense was rolling,” said East Marshall head coach Jary Hoskey, “and they had to deal with ‘P’ in the circle. When she’s on, she’s tough.”

Grabenbauer, the Mustangs’ senior pitcher, struck out 11, walked none and hit a batter in the win. She was perfect through the first three innings until West Fork started the fourth with back-to-back singles. An error compounded things for the defense, and Talia Pommrehn’s two-run double got the Warhawks within 8-4 for an instant.

The moment was fleeting. Boswell started things with a one-out double in the fifth, and Wheater hit a two-run, two-out bomb two batters later. Grabenbauer singled and Atcher hit an RBI double to put the Mustangs back up by seven, 11-4.

“It shows how much stronger we are as a team,” Wheater said, “because there’s been some games where we’ve made errors and we let it define what the rest of the game’s gonna look like. So we didn’t dwell on it this game and I think we fought back hard after that.”

Grabenbauer, Taylor Halverson and Adkins added two hits apiece, Miyah Grabenbauer hit an RBI double and Reagan Halverson added a single for the Mustangs, who are now two wins away from a third-straight trip to state.

“I think over the years it just helps us deal with all the pressure better because we’ve been through it before,” Wheater said, “so we don’t have all the pressure on our shoulders. We can play loose.”