Softball: Bureau Valley’s season ends with loss to North Boone in Class 2A sectional semifinals

MARENGO – Big things can sometimes have small, humble beginnings. That’s how Bureau Valley hopes to remember the 2024 softball season.

A season in which the Storm took steps forward came to a close with a 12-0 loss to North Boone in a Class 2A Marengo Sectional semifinal on Wednesday.

But while the 17-10 season may not have another game, first-year coach David Shepard wants to think of this as the beginning instead of the end.

“I mean look at this,” Shepard said as he took a look at a large cheering section that made the long trip north. “We haven’t seen this type of excitement for Bureau Valley in a while. And I’m so happy these kids got to experience that.

“I love the fact that they’ve bought into a guy that has been around the program but never been in charge of it. I couldn’t ask for a better group of kids.”

“We haven’t seen this type of excitement for Bureau Valley in a while. And I’m so happy these kids got to experience that.”

—  David Shepard, Bureau Valley first-year coach

In building a successful program, there will be lessons of course, some of which surfaced Wednesday. The most important of those was you can’t beat yourself.

That happened quite a bit in the first two innings. The Storm were very rocky defensively in the first two innings, giving up six runs on only three hits with four errors. The game’s big blow was a grand slam by North Boone’s Cami Carter in the second inning.

And while Bureau Valley settled down and gave up just one run over the next four innings, the damage had been done against a North Boone team (26-4) with a solid hurler in Carter. She retired 12 of 13 batters at one point.

“I thought our bats came alive Friday in the [regional] championship, and it was important for us to just get back out there and put the ball in play,” said North Boone coach Tim Fleming, who saw his school win its first sectional game in school history.

“We had some big hits but we also capitalized on some of their mistakes. On a windy day like this, that’s the important thing. Just put the ball in play and you never know what’s going to happen.”

Avarie Torres was 3 for 3 with a double and two runs batted in for the Vikings. Abby Galarza had two hits, including a double, and two RBI.

Bureau Valley had just five singles in the game, including two each from Les Maynard and Emily Wright. But starting pitcher Madison Smith echoes the idea that BV isn’t going anywhere with so many pieces returning.

“We overcame everything headed our way and we really battled a lot, and we worked well as a team to overcome it,” she said. “[There] was a new coach this year. Nobody expected us to win a regional, but we did.”

Senior Katelyn Stoller said after four years, she was proud to be a part of the team that could bring about a fresh future for Bureau Valley.

“Our program has worked very hard at least the past four years that I’ve been in it,” she said. “[A regional championship] always has been our goal, but we’ve always come up short. So to get it it’s very meaningful to us and to our entire school because we haven’t won it since 2006, which is the year some of us were born. That’s crazy. We had an amazing run, and I don’t think anyone will look back and say that we didn’t deserve the place we got.”