STATE CENTER — Ashtyn Blood sprang from the batter’s box, thinking extra bases the whole way.

She got them, but she didn’t need to sprint. It was just hard to contain her excitement.

Blood hit one of the West Marshall softball team’s three home runs in the bottom of the third inning of its rivalry showdown with Class 2A No. 13 East Marshall, boosting the Trojans toward their eventual 4-1 win on Tuesday night.

Freshmen Alayna Frederick, Blood and Cailyn Brown all homered in the at-bat for West Marshall (20-10), which won its third-straight over the Mustangs (19-9) and fourth of the last five. East Marshall had won 11 in a row before the 2025 season started a changing tide.

Frederick’s first career home run was the first hit of the game, too, beginning a wave of celebration for the Trojans.

“I think the biggest part of that is the understand that things are going to go up and down,” said West Marshall head coach Jake Randall, “and the understanding that if we just stay the course, continue to make adjustments and just believe in each other, celebrate each other.

“That inning, seeing their responses to the looks on their faces when a teammate does something like that, that is what we want to do. That’s how we want to build things, and that’s really what it takes to get things done as a team.”

It took a little adjustment at the plate, as well, according to Blood. East Marshall senior pitcher Peyton Grabenbauer was getting in on the Trojans’ hands, so they tweaked their approach at the plate and made it count in one fell swoop.

Frederick homered to straightaway center field on a 2-1 pitch leading off the third, and Jenna Randall followed with a four-pitch walk. Grabenbauer got Hattie McCollum on three straight strikes before Blood cleared the fence in left-center on the first offering.

“She definitely throws inside,” Blood said of Grabenbauer. “My first at-bat I popped up, so I made an adjustment and backed off the plate and turned on the inside pitch my next at-bat. Inside pitch is the pitch I try and hunt.”

From her first stride out of the batter’s box, Blood circled the bases in just 12.3 seconds, running full tilt the whole way.

“I just always try and run fast because I’ve hit a lot of triples before,” she said. “My last home run, I didn’t even watch it over the fence because I was too busy running.”

She knew this one was gone off the bat, but that didn’t slow her down.

“I did know that one was gone,” she said. “I actually watched it go over the fence.”

Two pitches later, Brown launched a no-doubter to left to make it 4-0.

“It was crazy, a great experience for sure for the team,” said Blood. “We’d never had back-to-backs before, especially all freshmen.”

West Marshall had hit two home runs in the same inning before, finishing off an 11-0 win over South Hamilton a week earlier with a nine-run at-bat that included a grand slam for Brown and a two-run, walk-off shot for Rachel Randall, but this game ostensibly carried a lot more weight.

“They’re a good team and they’re well-coached,” East Marshall head coach Jary Hoskey said of the Trojans. “Do I like losing to them? No. Would I like to beat them? You bet. Tonight wasn’t in the cards.

“We’ve had our chances with them and we’ve been successful a little bit, too, so it’s their turn.”

West Marshall junior pitcher Aubree Greenwood held the Mustangs to just five hits, but two of them came in East Marshall’s next at-bat. Miyah Grabenbauer blooped a one-out double down the left-field line, and Peyton Grabenbauer drove her home with a two-out single to center.

The Mustangs got leadoff singles to start the fifth, sixth and seventh innings but they couldn’t pile them together, and West Marshall’s defense made the plays.

Taylor Halverson started the fifth with a single and Gianna Boswell did the same in the sixth, but both were stranded. The Trojans erased Libby Atcher’s leadoff single in the seventh with a double play.

“We hit the ball hard at times, but you’ve got to give them credit,” Hoskey said. “They’re an awful good ballclub up and down the lineup, they’ve got a good coach, and Greenwood’s tough when she’s on.

“I thought we needed to lay off the high-ball tonight. We popped up a lot. We’ve gotta have better pitch selection on what we swing at.”

Greenwood struck out three and walked none for the win, while Peyton Grabenbauer struck out nine but walked five in defeat.

Brown was 2-for-3 with her team-leading fourth home run and the only player in the game with two hits. After her homer in the third, Rachel Randall and Greenwood got back-to-back two-out singles, but Randall was caught trying to take third on Greenwood’s slow-roller to shortstop to prevent an even bigger inning.

The two Marshall County teams who intentionally dodged each other in the Rose Festival Tournament can only hope to play again. That would require a trip to Fort Dodge and the Iowa High School Girls State Softball Tournament for both. East Marshall has advanced each of the last two seasons, while West Marshall hasn’t been since 2017.

“Right now the kids are building in that right direction, and it’s hard, right?” coach Randall said. “It’s a wave throughout the season and it takes big wins like this to really build that together, and we hope to string some together as we move forward.”

West Marshall, on a season-best five-game win streak, closes the regular season Wednesday at Ogden and Thursday at Grundy Center, while East Marshall, on a three-game skid, visits BCLUW on Wednesday and Newton on Friday.

Both teams have a first-round bye before two regional home games ahead of a potential trip to the regional finals.

“End of the day, yeah it doesn’t mean much,” Hoskey said of Tuesday’s loss. “We got beat by a good ballclub and we’ve been beaten by a couple good ballclubs, but we’re a good ballclub too.

“I like where we’re going to be.”