---

Allison Koch just had to follow the lead of her teammates.

The batters ahead of the Grundy Center junior had set the table, and after a marathon showdown with East Marshall, Koch delivered the final blow with a game-winning hit as the Spartans upended the No. 8 (2A) Mustangs by a 5-4 final score at the George Wilhelm Sports Complex on Thursday.

The teams were tied at 4 after four innings and then entered a 6 1/2 inning stalemate where both teams reached base but couldn’t cash in a deciding run.

That is, until Koch stepped up in the 11th inning and collected her third hit of the game to score Evelyn Geerdes, who was moved to second after a two-out walk issued to leadoff batter Maddy Hendershot.

“The biggest thing is staying calm under pressure, especially with two outs,” Koch said. “Maddy had a great at-bat to put Evelyn in a great position to score a run, so then it’s just coming out and doing your job, putting the ball in play.”

The 11th inning started with a Camdyn Aronson single, and her pinch runner Khloe Bartels was moved to second on a well-placed sacrifice bunt from pinch hitter Trinity Jirovsky. Bartels went to third on Geerdes’ soft blooper to short that appeared to be errantly played by East Marshall’s defense, but umpires ruled that Bartels had interfered with the play on her way to third and the Spartans were left with Geerdes on first and two outs, one of several moments in Thursday’s game where close calls went against both teams and raised the stakes higher and higher as the war between the NICL West schools marched on.

“You’re going to have some adversity, and you just have to control what you can control,” Grundy Center head coach Andy Lebo said. “The thing is, our next girl up stepped up and did the job, and that’s kind of what this team is about, that next-person-up mentality.”

The Mustangs, who were fourth-place finishers in 2A last year, quickly had the Spartans on their heels after Bailey Grant’s two-run home run blast to left-center started the scoring in the second inning.

Koch put one in play to score Caturella Brown in the bottom of the third to halve the East Marshall lead, but East Marshall tacked on two more in the fourth with a Delaney Ryan two-out, two-RBI hit.

Grundy Center kept coming in the bottom of the fourth, with Lauren Zajac knocking in two Spartans and Geerdes putting one in play to score the tying run and making it 4-4 after four.

East Marshall stranded seven runners on base in the scoreless innings that followed, and Grundy Center left five on base in that span.

“They were hitting the ball on us early, but we made some good defensive plays,” Lebo said. “We made a few mistakes here and there, but the girls flush it, they got back to it, and our defense is just continuously getting better.”

Hendershot and eighth-grader Macey Kiewiet combined their efforts in the pitching circle to keep the Mustangs at bay, including 6 1/3 scoreless innings from Kiewiet, who scattered two hits with two walks and six strikeouts.

“They both do really well for us,” Koch said. “They were hitting Maddy a bit, there’s not a lot you can do about that, and then she comes out to play shortstop for us and Macey helped lift her and the rest of us up by throwing strikes and helping us get this win.”

Koch said the Spartans were determined to bounce back after a narrow 11-10 loss to then 12th-ranked Jesup 24 hours earlier, a game where Lebo said Grundy started flat and then rallied back before the J-Hawks escaped with a walk-off win.

“I think we all came into tonight with a bit of a chip on our shoulder,” Koch said. “That loss last night was tough on all of us and we just came out ready to play tonight.”

Prior to Wednesday’s battle with Jesup, Grundy Center swept an NICL West doubleheader with South Hardin by scores of 9-8, 12-0 and are 3-0 to start the NICL West schedule, which will continue at home against AGWSR on Thursday, June 12.

The Spartans played in a Hudson tournament on Saturday and have home games with Dike-New Hartford and Aplington-Parkersburg on Monday and Tuesday, followed by a road trip to Union on Wednesday.