Spencer, Ia (Northwest Iowa Now) – The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union Softball Region 7 Quarterfinals were Thursday night in Spencer as the #4 seed Tigers played host to #5 Ballard.

Jersey Vail took the circle for Spencer while Emmalyn Kruse pitched for the Bombers.

After stranding a couple of Ballard runners in the top of the first, Spencer came to the plate in the bottom half, and Dakota Lux started the Tiger offense with some fireworks.

After a scoreless 2nd inning from both sides, and a 3-up-3-down top of the 3rd, the Top of the lineup came through again for Spencer as Lucy Simington drove in Mercedes Kreig.

The next inning saw a couple of well struck balls get corralled by Ballard’s Kenna Zimmerman in Left Field, and Olivia Wacha in Center to take a pair of hits and a possible RBI opportunity away from the Tigers.

The biggest Ballard threat came in the top of the 6th inning. A pair of Spencer errors put Baylor Buttz on 2nd and Afton Holmes on 3rd with no outs. The runners were moved up on the sacrifice bunt by Kenna Zimmerman, to put the games tying run on second and go ahead to the plate with only 1 out. Vail locked in with a few clutch strikeouts.

Despite getting contained offensively in the final 4 innings, the Spencer defense did their job through the 7th, and the Tigers advanced to the Regional Semifinals to play the #1 seed and #7 in the State North Polk on Saturday with a 2-0 win.

Jersey Vail threw 7 innings, allowing 0 runs on 2 hits, walked 5 and struck out 7 in the win for Spencer.

Emmalyn Kruse, the 8th grader for the Bombers, pitched well despite the loss, only allowing 2 runs on 7 hits through 6 innings of work while issuing no walks, something Ballard has struggled with this season.

Ballard’s season comes to an end at 7-27.

Spencer’s Regional Semifinal game on Saturday will be broadcast, weather pending, on News Radio 102.5 and AM 1240 KICD and Northwest Iowa Now.com.