Young Mustangs plan to play for now at state softball tournament

The last time Shaun Hudnut coached at a state tournament, he was guiding the PCM baseball team to Principal Park in 2010.

His daughter Addi was just 2 years old and that season ended with a 2-1 loss to Davis County in the quarterfinals.

Flash forward to now and Coach Hudnut returns to the state tournament. This time, he’s the head coach of the softball team and Addi is a 16-year-old sophomore starter at third base.

If the Class 3A No. 8 Mustangs want to go further than Coach Hudnut’s 2010 baseball team, they will have to take down second-ranked Williamsburg at 7 p.m. at Rogers Park in Fort Dodge.

“Our family has grown up at PCM baseball and softball diamonds — we are excited for Addison and her teammates to play and for all they have accomplished,” Coach Hudnut said. “Being the first softball team at PCM to play in the state tournament is awesome. We’ve had great support from our alumni and former players have been reaching out to me. I had former baseball players in the crowd tonight. It’s just been awesome to be able to do this for the program.”

Coach Hudnut said he has not had time to reflect on what his team has accomplished. The challenge that Williamsburg presents has been enough to take up a lot of his time.

The Raiders enter the state tournament batting .334. They rank seventh in 3A with 472 total bases, sixth with 61 doubles, eighth with 285 runs and second with 223 steals.

They also have the second-best fielding percentage in the class at .967.

“Williamsburg is a fantastic team and will provide quite a challenge,” Coach Hudnut said. “They are extremely fast and play rock solid defense. We will need to execute pitches well to limit hard contact and take care of the outs that they give us.”

Executing pitchers against Williamsburg (30-12) won’t be easy as the Raiders have six players batting at least .345, led by junior Alley Gorsh.

Gorsh is hitting .395 and leads the Raiders with 61 total bases. Junior Makenna Hughes ranks third in 3A with 49 steals, senior Shannon Finn leads Williamsburg with 40 runs and three triples and ranks tied for eighth in 3A with 39 steals and junior Taylor Pitlick is the Raiders’ RBI lead at 38.

Freshman Taylor Sanchez has a team-best 10 doubles, eighth-grader Talon Spratt has a team-most four homers and junior Carly Rich leads the squad with 17 walks. Freshman Ava Hocker has 44 steals and sophomore Ashlynn Fuhrman ranks second on the squad with a .385 batting average.

“We knew from the start of the season that we had a strong team. To prove that we could do this is awesome,” said sophomore shortstop Tori Lindsay said. “We put in so much work in the offseason and it didn’t stop during the season.”

Lindsay leads the Mustangs (24-4) with 31 runs, eight doubles, four homers and 51 total bases and she’s been hit by a team-most 10 pitches. Her .367 batting average ranks second on the squad and Lindsay has a team-best .474 on-base percentage.

Lark Drake is the team’s lone senior, while Addison Steenhoek is the only junior.

That could bode well for the future. But the Mustangs will do the best they can to live in the moment and not take this first trip to Fort Doge for granted.

“I know we could get caught up in the moment and forget to realize all the work that has paid off to get to this point,” Drake said. “We have talked about playing the game like it’s any other game. If we think of it to be anything more, sometimes we can get too in our heads and forget the basics. If we play how we know how to and give our upmost efforts and energy, I know we can do anything we put our minds to.”

Williamsburg enters the state tournament with an advantage over PCM in batting average and fielding percentage, but the Mustangs’ earned run average of 1.31 ranks second in 3A.

The Raiders’ team ERA is 3.00. Their ace pitcher is sophomore Jersey Metz, who enters Monday 21-6 with an ERA of 2.62. She’s struck out 102 batters in 160 1/3 innings.

PCM’s young squad has had ups and downs at the plate. The Mustangs are batting .308 as a team but averaging 6.5 runs per contest. Their 19 homers ranks ninth in 3A.

They also scored 13 runs in less than four innings in their latest contest against No. 9 Clarinda in the regional finals.

“Their pitcher locates well and uses her changeup effectively,” Coach Hudnut said. “We will need to stay balanced so that we can put that pitch into play with hard contact.”

Eighth-grader Libby Winters leads PCM with a .384 batting average. Her 32 RBIs also leads the squad. She has an OBP of .430 and is tied for the team lead in steals with 13.

Sophomore Lillian Humpal is hitting .345 and is tied with Winters with a team-best 13 steals. She also has a team-most eight doubles and her OBP is .423.

Drake leads PCM with 13 walks and her OBP of .454 ranks second in 3A. She’s scored 25 runs and is batting .329.

Steenhoek is tied with Lindsay with four homers and her 11 walks rank second on the squad. She’s also thrown out 10 potential base stealers, which ranks tied for seventh in 3A.

“It feels awesome. This was one of our two goals,” Steenhoek said. “We got the conference title early and now this. We put in the work, we showed up every day and we knew this was going to be a tough fight, but we got the bats going. It was fun.”

Steenhoek has caught all 28 games for PCM. She’s one of the reasons sophomore Rylee Parsons and eighth-grader Camden Webb have ERAs that rank in the top 10 of 3A.

Parsons enters the state tournament 15-2 with an ERA of 1.25, which ranks sixth in the class. She’s stuck out 99 batters in 89 1/3 innings.

Webb has closed out many wins this season for PCM. She’s currently 7-1 with a state-best 11 saves. Her ERA of 1.11 ranks fifth in 3A and she’s fanned 80 in 75 2/3 innings.

“We’ve worked towards this all season. Our minds were set on Fort Dodge from the start,” Addi Hudnut said. “The coaches believed in us, our community believed in us, and ultimately, we believed in us. Now that we’re here, we’re making sure to just soak it all in, and at the end of the day, just go play the sport that we love.”

Coach Hudnut’s state-qualifying baseball team earned the No. 7 seed back in 2010.

That’s what PCM will be this time around against second-seeded Williamsburg. The Raiders downed Chariton, 6-2, in their regional final game.

The two teams will play on Channel Seeds Field inside Rogers Park at 7 p.m. on Monday in Fort Dodge.

The PCM-Williamsburg winner faces the winner between No. 3 ranked and third-seeded Dubuque Wahlert Catholic (29-10) and No. 7 ranked and sixth-seeded Sumner-Fredericksburg (33-3) in the semifinals at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

The losers also square off in a consolation fifth-place game at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

The other side of the bracket features No. 1 ranked and top-seeded Benton Community (31-7) facing off against unranked Solon (18-24).

The other quarterfinal matchup is fifth-ranked and fourth-seeded Davenport Assumption (25-12) and sixth-ranked and fifth-seeded Estherville Lincoln Central (31-6).

The 3A state championship game will be at 2:30 p.m. on Friday. Fourth-ranked Mount Vernon was the only team in the top eight of the final rankings to not make the state tournament.

“I’m very excited to be playing at state,” Drake said. “I can’t think of a better way to end my softball career at PCM. The experience will be unbeatable.”

PCM’s young squad has the chance to get back to state in the coming years. But Coach Hudnut wants his team to focus on the games and days ahead of them.

Addi Hudnut would have enjoyed the experience by herself. But having her Dad along for the ride as the head coach makes it even more special.

“It’s just a really cool thing to be able to do together, especially because I’ve grown up around the diamond and he’s really been coaching me since I was old enough to pick up a bat,” Addi Hudnut said.