State Berth in Sight as Mo Valley SB Defeats Unity Christian, 11-5

Missouri Valley's Grace Herman (L) & Rylee Evans (7-12-25)

State Berth in Sight as Mo Valley SB Defeats Unity Christian, 11-5 –

(7-12-25) – Unity Christian couldn’t overcome the unity of the Lady Reds.

Missouri Valley got a Rylee Evans 2-run home in 2nd as part of a 2 for 3, 4 RBI day for the junior in their 11-5 victory in the 3A-Region 4 Semifinals Saturday.

Evans shot surprised even herself.

“I was really surprised at how far it like went,” Evans said of her 5th homer of the season. “Off the bat, I was like I'm running these bases out after I saw how far that ball went. So, my approach was I didn't really want to swing at the first pitch, especially since it was my first time up there. That's how my approach because it's like seeing it was like a new pitcher and I was waiting till I got my pitch. She threw that thing right down the middle and I was like, I'm going right at it.”

Grace Herman got the scoring going with one out in the 1st with a 2-run homer off the base of scoreboard in left center. After Evans blast gave the Lady Reds, 4-0, the Knights worked their way back on an Addison Boogerd 2-RBI single cut the lead in half.

But Missouri Valley would get three consecutive doubles in the 4th to extend their lead to 6-2. Addyson DeBoom then led off the 5th with a solo home run for Unity Christian before Rylee Evans had a two-out double to make it 8-3.

The Knights wouldn’t give up, getting a DeBoom sac fly and a Ruby Zylstra homer to again make it a 3-run game.

The Lady Reds would scratch across three more runs in the 6th before turning over the game to Paityn West. Unity Christian would load the bases against West before she struck out Summer Schouten to end the contest.

Herman was 2 for 4 with a homer and 3 RBI. In her final home game, the team motto of “We over me,” continues to ring true.

“We’ve had a couple rough years of where people try to put themselves in front of the team, but this year, like it really snapped like, ‘We over me’ and we really put that in perspective. We have signs up in the dugout to like, remind you, as soon as you leave the dugout, it's ‘we over me’ and you put your team first and it honestly feels really good to be excited for everyone else and to not feel down and they always will bring you up no matter what.”

Audrie Kohl struck out 10 in 6 innings of work to get her 24th victory on the season, best in 3A.

Herman is excited to compete for another shot at reaching the state tournament.

“I'm so excited. I know we're gonna come ready to play. We're gonna come excited and we're just gonna show up and play our game and play how we know how to play softball and be us.”

Evans has never been there and would love to add a trip to Fort Dodge to her softball resume.

“I'm ready to play. I've been playing softball for all these years. I'm ready to head to Fort Dodge.”

The Lady Reds will face PCM in the regional championship game on Tuesday.

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or Iowa Quik Stats