Valle Catholic Softball Wins Second Straight District Title, Second Title In Program History

(Ste. Genevieve) For the second consecutive year, and second time in program history, the Valle Catholic softball team are district champions.

In a matchup of top ten teams in the state, the Warriors took down Advance by a score of 6-3 on Tuesday. Advance scored a run in the top of the first, however, coach Kurt Basler says giving up an early run didn’t bother him.

Senior Emily Flieg and junior Makayla Joggerst knocked in two runs each to put the Warriors up 4-1 after one inning. Joggerst and sophomore Abree Zipprich recorded RBI hits in the second to make it 6-1. Advance got a couple runs in the fifth and sixth innings before getting shut down by Zipprich in the circle.

Basler had high expectations prior to the season, but he says this win gave his team some extra confidence.

Zipprich struck out 12 batters in seven innings against Advance. After earning all-state accolades as a freshman, Zipprich has pitched 94.2 innings this year to go with 184 strikeouts and a 0.887 earned run average. Valle Catholic will lean on the sophomore down the stretch. Basler says she’ll be ready to roll.

Valle Catholic High School has 27 state championships across five sports. The softball program has only been around since 2015 but the team has never been better. Basler says the softball team’s success could be instrumental in getting younger kids to play softball.

Valle Catholic are 17-3 this season. They’ll head to Risco on Tuesday to take on the 19-12 Tigers at 4:30.

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