Immanuel Lutheran survives late Gilman rally to advance to regional championship

Immanuel Lutheran had kept Gilman at arms length for six innings in its 8-7 softball regional semifinal victory. The Lancers had been in front since the bottom of the first inning and had been able to keep the Pirates from mounting any serious rallies. All that was left for Immanuel Lutheran was to punctuate the game with a seventh inning the Lancers led 8-4 coming into. If only it were that easy.

stepped into the circle looking to toss a complete game. The right-hander had been strong throughout, navigating some spotty defense as the Lancers try to get several players settled at new positions to keep Gilman from mounting any big innings.

Even though the Pirates had left plenty of runners on and hadn’t been able to put a crooked number up in an inning, Gilman went down with a fight in the top of the seventh with its season on the line.

The first two Pirates of the inning drew walks and the rally was on. Gilman starting pitcher Danielle Mann chopped a ball over to short and the Lancers looked like they’d get the lead runner at third, but the ball was dropped on the throw. Designated player Raygen Soper scored and the Pirates all of a sudden had the tying run at the plate.

Things went from bad to worse for Immanuel Lutheran as Abby Chaplinski and Ava Warner followed Mann’s groundball up with back-to-back singles that scored two more runs to make it 8-7. Jayda Rosemeyer grounded out to short for the first out of the inning, but Chaplinski and Warner moved up to second and third, representing the tying and go-ahead runs.

“What was going through my head during the seventh thing was ‘Let’s just get out of it,’” Immanuel Lutheran head coach Rhonda White said with a laugh.

Kazemba did just that. The righty struck out Scarlett Stuner and with two outs, got shortstop Allie Olynick to fly out to right.

The nightmare scenario had been avoided. Immanuel Lutheran’s season would survive at least another day.

“Very happy that we ended up getting out of that inning,” White said. “It was a little scary for a minute but we’ve got to we’ve got to tighten down.”

The third-seeded Lancers have a quick turnaround as they travel to Thorp to face the second-seeded Cardinals at 5 p.m. Thursday. Immanuel Lutheran is trying to get players up to speed at some unfamiliar positions and clean up the defensive lapses, of which there were a few against Gilman.

Rest for everyone during the short downtime will also be critical, particularly for Kazemba who will pitch again for the Lancers as they go for a regional championship.

“We’ll want her to get some good rest,” White said. “Then just really be solid on our fielding. We started out with a couple bobbles early on in the game that we needed to really clean up and then get that infield syncing together and working in their new position.”

Immanuel Lutheran Softball

Immanuel Lutheran's Rachel Kazemba takes a swing. The Lancers lineup scores six runs in the first three innings.

Something that was working for Immanuel Lutheran were the bats. Gilman had engineered a run in the top of the first to open the scoring, but the lead didn’t last long.

Kazemba cranked a hard line drive to left center and blazed around the bases for a standing triple. Two pitches later, Katie Kloke drove the pitcher in with a double down the left field line.

Immanuel Lutheran was dialed in at the plate as catcher Cheyenne Wales followed that up with another base hit to left, scoring Kloke. The three-hole hitter used her speed to make it to second before a misplay allowed her to reach third. One wild pitch later, Wales scored to make it 3-1 before an out had been recorded.

The Lancers lineup picked it back up in the third. Three straight singles to start the inning including a Gabi Radichel RBI-single that scored Wales doubled Lutheran’s lead. After Gilman finally recorded an out, Kenzie Koenig brought in another with a single. The Lancers tacked on one more and it was 6-2 after three.

“I like what I saw at the plate,” White said. “We’ve been a little tight at the plate for the last couple of games, so I was happy to see that we loosened up a little bit tonight and got things flying.”

Immanuel Lutheran will go for its second regional title in three seasons at 5 p.m. Thursday in Thorp.