“These girls started on varsity when they were in seventh, eighth and ninth grade together, and we told them if they stuck it out together, that it would all come full circle in their favor,” YME head coach Jen Sneller said. “They just kept at it, kept at it. They took their hits when they were younger and they just kept climbing the ladder year after year.”

YME trailed 8-7 heading into the seventh inning but they stayed composed when it mattered most. Emma Keller led off the inning and Alana Almich walked to put the go-ahead run on base. After Macy Rohlik leapt up to snag a line drive for the first out of the inning, Chasity Schmitz came up strong in the clutch with an RBI single to tie the game.

“Stepping up to the plate, I’m really nervous, but I know that my team has my back,” Schmitz said. “Whatever I do, I’m going to do it right, and I have to step in there with confidence.”

Still, the Sting weren’t satisfied with just being tied. Consecutive walks to Everra Leenerts and Charlotte Paslawski pushed across the go-ahead run. The Rabbits made a pitching change, with Delaina Eis coming in for Aylah Jenniges and getting a strikeout, but a walk to Brianna Nelson gave the Sting a two-run cushion heading into the bottom of the seventh.

Photo by Jake McNeill: The Yellow Medicine East softball team converges on shortstop Everra Leenerts (center) after she caught the game-sealing out in the Sting's 3A semifinal matchup against Wabasso, Tuesday at the Marshall Softball Complex.

Camryn Irlbeck hit a leadoff single in the seventh to bring the tying run to the plate for Wabasso, but she got caught in a rundown after a strikeout to put two away and clear the basepaths. Another pair of singles by Cassie Bliss and Peyton Jenniges put the tying run on base, but Bayli Sneller retired the final batter to put the finishing touches on the win.

“It feels amazing. I mean, I can’t do it alone, my whole team is amazing,” Bayli Sneller said when asked how it felt to play a pivotal role in the team’s advancement. “[When we were trailing], we just kept saying that we deserve to be here, keep the energy high. We were hitting all game, just keep it going, because we knew it was going to be back and forth the whole time.”

Sneller pitched all seven innings for the Sting to earn the win, striking out five batters with no walks. She surrendered eight earned runs on 16 hits in the game.

For the Rabbits, Jenniges was charged with eight earned and two unearned runs over 6 1/3 frames, allowing 13 hits and four walks with a pair of strikeouts.

Trailing 6-1, Wabasso battled its way back into the game with six fifth-inning runs. Audrey Johnson was hit by a pitch before scoring on an Eis double, and Aylah Jenniges singled in Eis to cut the deficit to three runs.

Photo by Jake McNeill: The Yellow Medicine East softball team celebrates a hit from the dugout during a 3A semifinal matchup against Wabasso, Tuesday in Marshall.

Jenniges was tagged out trying to stretch the hit into a double, putting two away, but singles by Kayleigha Johnson and Irlbeck, and Carlson getting hit by a pitch, loaded the bases for the Rabbits. Bliss and Peyton Jenniges then hit consecutive two-run singles to give Wabasso its first lead of the day, 7-6.

Paslawski scored a tying run for the Sting in the top of the sixth, leading off with a single and scoring on a Nelson sacrifice fly, but Wabasso snatched the lead right back when Eis hit a solo home run to give the Rabbits an 8-7 lead heading into the final frame.

“We’ve been in that situation before where we got rattled when we were behind, and we’ve had very in-depth conversations about how important it was to keep playing until the last out of the game,” coach Sneller said. “It doesn’t matter what the score is, it’s anybody’s game at any given time. They just need to keep their head in the game, one ball at a time, one pitch at a time, one play at a time until the final out.”

“Just playing together as a team, we really stuck together after every play,” Schmitz added. “We picked each other up. If there was a mistake, we really just played as a team and that’s what brought out our win today.”

Schmitz led the Rabbits with three hits and two RBIs in the game, and Paslawski contributed two hits and a walk with three RBIs. Emma Keller also logged a double and a single while Almich contributed two singles and a walk.

Photo by Jake McNeill: Yellow Medicine East's Chasity Schmitz hits a pitch in the second inning of the Rabbits' 3A semifinal win over Wabasso, Tuesday in Marshall.

Eis finished the day with a game-high six total bases, coming on a home run and a double with two RBIs. Irlbeck, Bliss and Peyton Jenniges each also tallied three hits for the Rabbits, including three RBIs for Jenniges and two for Bliss.

The Sting retired three straight batters after Macy Rohlik led off the bottom of the first by legging out a double to leave her stranded on third base. In the top of the second, YME surged ahead with a pair of go-ahead runs.

Almich got the rally started with a single, and Schmitz and Leenerts each added another single to load the bases with two outs. Paslawski seized the moment, drilling a two-run single up the middle to get the Sting on the board.

Kayleigha Johnson led off the bottom of the frame with a single before Bayli Sneller struck out consecutive batters. Still, a Cassie Bliss single put runners on first and second, and Peyton Jenniges lined a hard-hit ball over the outstretched glove of a leaping second baseman to drive in Johnson to cut the deficit in half.

Yet, YME continued to expand its edge with another trio of fourth-inning runs. Almich again kicked off the rally with a leadoff single, followed by a walk to Ella Cherveny. With one out, Leenerts drove Almich home with a single. After a shallow pop out, Kourtney Peterson hit a ground ball to third but an error on the throw allowed Cherveny and Leenerts to run home for a 5-1 Sting lead.

Wabasso put two runners in scoring position in the bottom of the frame, courtesy of a Camryn Irlbeck single and a Sara Carlson double, but Nelson charged in from left field to catch a shallow pop out just behind the dirt and Sneller battled back from being down 2-0 in the count to get the inning-ending strikeout without any Rabbit runs scoring.

Yellow Medicine East now prepares for the Section 3A championship game on Thursday at 4 p.m., taking on the winner of the elimination bracket final between Wabasso and BOLD. YME needs just one win to advance to their first-ever state tournament, while the winner of the elimination bracket would need to defeat the Sting twice in a row.

“We just need to keep having confidence in the box. We focused a lot on hitting and it really came together today, so just having that confidence and knowing that we need to do the little things right,” Bayli Sneller said.

Wabasso’s elimination bracket matchup against BOLD was still in progress at the time of print.

BOX SCORE

YME

BATTING

K. Peterson: 1-5, 2 SO; B. Nelson: 1-3, BB, 2 RBI; E. Keller: 2-4 (2B), 2 R; A. Almich: 2-2, BB, HBP, 3 R; E. Cherveny: 0-3, BB, R, SO; C. Schmitz: 3-4, 2 RBI, 2 R; E. Leenerts: 2-3, BB, RBI, R; C. Paslawski: 2-3, BB, 3 RBI, R.

PITCHING

B. Sneller: W, 7 IP, 16 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 5 SO.

WABASSO

BATTING

M. Rohlik: 1-5 (2B), SO; A. Johnson: 0-3, HBP, R; D. Eis: 2-4 (HR, 2B), 2 RBI, 2 R; A. Jenniges: 1-4, RBI; K. Johnson: 2-4, 2 R; C. Irlbeck: 3-4, R, SO; S. Carlson: 1-3 (2B), HBP, R, SO; C. Bliss: 3-4, 2 RBI, R; P. Jenniges: 3-4, 3 RBI, SO.

PITCHING

A. Jenniges: L, 6.1 IP, 13 H, 10 R, 8 ER, 4 BB, 2 SO; D. Eis: 0.2 IP, BB, SO.