Another postseason game, another walkoff win for the Warrenton Lady Warriors.

Maddisyn Hoelscher singled in the winning run in the seventh inning of last week’s 2-1 state quarterfinal win over Incarnate Word to send Warrenton to the state semifinals.

“That was the best moment of my life,” Hoelscher said. “I bawled my eyes out as soon as everybody ran onto the field.”

Warrenton overcame a 1-0 seventh inning deficit with two runs in the final frame to punch their ticket to Springfield. Hoelscher’s single came with Audrey Lanzone at second and Makayla Witthaus on first base with no one out. Lanzone scored on Hoelscher’s single. Hoelscher’s approach during the at bat was to find a hole with two runners on base.

“I swung the bat, I ran, I looked up and they were throwing it home,” Hoelscher said. “They missed the throw. I ran to second and everybody started running onto the field.”

For the second consecutive game, Kiera Daniel sparked a late inning rally for the Lady Warriors. In the district final game against Parkway North, Daniel reached base and scored the game winning run in the eighth inning. This time, Daniel singled to lead off the seventh inning and scored the game-tying run.

“I really just told myself I’m not going back in the dugout,” Daniel said. “I can’t go back in the dugout on a strikeout. So I visualized myself hitting a line drive. I didn’t visualize where but I visualized myself hitting a line drive, getting on first and looking at second. And then it happened. I did it. It was so crazy.”

After Daniel’s single to lead off the inning, Warrenton softball coach Chad Berrey called on Lanzone to execute a sacrifice bunt to move Daniel to second base. Lanzone executed the bunt and a throwing error put Daniel and Lanzone both in scoring position.

While the Lady Warriors traditionally have not been a small ball team, Berrey said the team’s approach changes when playing for one run. Berrey added the Lady Warriors have worked on bunting a lot in practice.

“We make our money by just hitting the ball hard,” Berrey said. “But when you’re playing for one, you have to change your approach. So we changed our approach to play for one. And Lanzone being a freshman, holy cow. Talk about growing pains. They grew up a lot. That’s a big time bunt and a big time play.”

With runners on second and third base and no outs, Makayla Witthaus singled through the left side to score Daniel and tie the game.

“I cried as soon as I did it because that’s when I knew that we could keep going in the game,” Daniel said.

Hoelscher followed Witthaus’ game-tying single with the walkoff single to send Warrenton to the state semifinals in Springfield.

After both teams were held scoreless through five innings, Incarnate Word broke the scoreless tie on Kenzie Nelson’s two-out single to score Ella Post.

Warrenton did not score in the bottom of the sixth inning. Kylie Witthaus held Incarnate Word off the board in the top of the seventh before Warrenton’s late inning heroics.

“We were quiet in the huddle,” Berrey said. “They came in and they were looking to me for an answer. And I guess God blessed me with some words to say. I rambled off an approach and they stuck to it. They’re approachable girls and holy cow. They did it. They truly stuck to the approach and it paid off.”

Berrey said prior to last week’s district quarterfinal matchup, the Lady Warriors discussed what it meant to the school and town to have success and go to state. At schools in Wentzville, St. Charles County or even private schools like Incarnate Word, the teams are playing for the school. Warrenton was playing for more than just a school, but also a community of 8,000 people, Berrey said.

“We have Warrenton across our chest. And we are playing for 8,000 people that live here,” Berrey said. “That really I think sunk into them and really drove us in preparing today. We had our heads on straight that we wanted to do it for more than just ourselves. We wanted to do it for the town and give this town something to cheer about in the next coming weeks.”

Warrenton’s win over Incarnate Word avenged their 3-2 loss to the Red Knights in last year’s state quarterfinal.

“That’s all we thought about for the past week. We get another shot at Incarnate,” Berrey said. A great program over there. They’re class acts. I couldn’t ask for a better team to play against in a quarterfinal game.”

Warrenton (16-8) will face Kearney (24-8) at 12 p.m. Thursday in the Class 4 state semifinals. The game will be played at Killian Softball Complex in Springfield. 

“We’re going to go get greedy and we’re going to take everything we can down there and just soak it up while we’re there,” Berrey said.