Riverside outlasts Wolves in eight-inning WIC softball semifinal

 LOGAN (June 27) -- In a wild Western Iowa Conference Softball Tournament semifinal, Riverside rallied three times in the last four innings - capped by a three-run bottom of the eighth - to beat IKM-Manning 8-7 Thursday at Logan.
 The Bulldogs (16-8) advanced to Thursday night’s tournament championship game and lost 8-0 to sixth-ranked (3A) Treynor. The Wolves (8-15) fell just shy of reaching the WIC title game for the sixth straight time since joining the league in 2014.
 IKM-M took a 5-4 lead in the top of the seventh on an RBI single by Joanna Freese but Riverside tied it back up with an unearned run in the bottom half when an error left the door open for Jadyn Achenbach’s RBI double.
 The Wolves scored twice in the eighth, starting with a Grace Youngren single and a sacrifice bunt by Zoey Melton. Youngren scored on Riverside’s fifth error of the contest and a Jessica Christensen bunt single drove in Emily Kerkhoff to make it 7-5.
 Once again, the Bulldogs responded with their backs against the wall. With one out, Gracie Bluml slapped her fourth hit of the game up the middle and Skye Bentley narrowly beat out an infield single to put the tying runs on base. Following an intentional walk to Kenna Ford, Meghan Reed singled home two runs and a subsequent wild pitch allowed the winning run to score.
 Bianca Cadwell took the loss for IKM-M, allowing 12 hits and six earned runs in seven and two-thirds innings.
 The Wolves’ first three runs of the game scored on throwing errors and a wild pitch before Lexi Branning launched a solo home run in the fifth - her third of the year - to briefly make it 4-2. Kerkhoff went 2-for-4 with two runs scored to lead IKM-Manning at the plate.