VAN HORNE On Tuesday, the Benton Community softball team was in the same position they had been the last five years, playing in the regional finals.

Taking the field as the favorite, the WaMaC Conference champion Lady Bobcats hosted No. 14 Charles City for the Class 4A Region 4 final.

No stranger to big games, having won the 3A state title last year, Benton was poised for another trip to Harlan Rogers Sports Complex, but, uncharacteristically the Lady Bobcats played themselves into a hole after giving up two unearned runs to the Comets. Only able to plate one run, Benton lost in a stunning upset, 2-1, failing to reach state for the first time in two years.

Weve been in big games before but we didnt play like it tonight, we played scared, said 25 year head coach Eric Stenberg. The kids looked like they hadnt been there before so we werent making good decisions. We didnt give up any earned runs so we lost the game without giving up an earned run and that stings. We just werent ourselves being aggressive and for whatever reason the girls just werent mentally ready to go.

The biggest letdown for Stenberg seemed to be the fact that his team lost without giving up an earned run. In the top of the third inning, Charles Citys Payton Reams scored the first run of the game after coming home on a wild pitch that got away from Bentons starting pitcher Anna Stenberg. On the very same play, Bentons senior catcher Jaicee Lyons made a throw down to third for an attempted pickoff, but after an errant throw and catch, Tayler Schmidt was freed up to cross safely into home for the Comets second run of the game.

We didnt play the way were capable of playing and to lose like that it does hurt, coach Stenberg said. Our kids battled, we were in there till the end, it just didnt fall our way.

Limited in their ability to hit and be aggressive at the plate, Bentons main opportunity to cause some damage and get back in the game came in the bottom of the fourth.

With one out and runners on second and third, Stenberg stepped to the plate, laid down a bunt and scored sophomore Angie Gorkow from third. In the same sequence, courtesy runner for Lyons, freshman Mallory Thys, got caught up in a pickle between third and home, allowing Charles City to run her down and limit the threat by tagging her for the second out.

We had girls in scoring position we just had some base running errors, we threw the ball around a little bit, we just didnt get the timely hit and all year long weve kind of had the timely hit to bring us out of things; we just couldnt get that tonight, said coach Stenberg.

Usually able to rally back after scoring their first run in a comeback situation, this time things were different for Benton as Charles City and their starting pitcher Sami Heyer limited the Lady Bobcats to just one hit through the final three innings.

Thats usually what happens, we get going again. Kids got to get into it and get some more confidence and I was hopeful that would be the case, we just had too many let downs and too many mental mistakes. We werent mentally sharp tonight and unfortunately thats one of the reasons we lost, commented the Benton coach.

I knew one through nine they were going to be good hitters, I didnt identify one single hitter. We tried putting that girl (Gorkow) on and it worked out to our advantage just because we had an open base but other than that Sammy (Heyer) hit spots and we played solid defensively, said Charles City coach Brian Bohlen.

Never able to mount a comeback, Benton fell in the regional final for the first time in two years with a final score of 2-1.

We werent real disciplined at the plate, said coach Stenberg. Credit to her (Heyer) she had us off-balance and then we started playing scared so its hard to score runs when youre not being aggressive and have that look in your eye like your confident and for whatever reason we just didnt look confident tonight. Still had our chances but a combination of throwing the ball around, some base running errors and just not being aggressive at the plate kind of cost us.

Following her teams uncharacteristic loss, Benton sophomore standout Grace Martensen said, Obviously were all sad and this is never in a million years what we thought would happen but, I guess our heads werent in the game. We came in playing scared and thats not how you should do that. Weve been in this situation, third round, going to state multiple times; you should know how to execute.

----For the rest of the story read the 7/14/17 edition of the Cedar Valley Times

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No. 1 Lady Bobcats stunned by Comets - Cedar Valley Daily Times