Messenger photo by Britt Kudla Kacey Kruthoff of St. Edmond attempts makes a tag against Humboldt during the regular season at Rogers Park.

FONDA — All season long, Nick Clark has preached continued progress.

That’s typical of most coaches, but Clark and the St. Edmond softball team put it on full display here Wednesday night when they upset fifth-ranked and Class 1A traditional power Newell-Fonda in a regional quarterfinal.

Clark, a former St. Edmond standout athlete and recent Buena Vista University graduate, has already achieved two landmark victories in as many postseason games. And now, the Gaels are just two more wins away from a return to the state softball tournament.

St. Edmond (11-17 overall) will face Exira-EHK (16-10) in a semifinal back here Friday night at 7 p.m. The winner advances to Monday’s regional championship against either Lynnville-Sully (18-11) or Montezuma (17-12).

How far have Clark and the Gaels come this season? Back on May 22, St. Edmond opened its year at Newell-Fonda and suffered a 13-3 loss in six innings.

Eighth-grader Ella Vratny made her debut that night, throwing 123 pitches and allowing 17 hits, five earned runs and walking five batters. The Gaels managed just six hits that night, including only one for extra bases — a Jocy Timmerman double.

Flash-forward 45 days later and the evidence of that “continued progress” was there for everyone to see.

Vratny allowed nine hits and walked only one batter over her eight innings of work, striking out six. St. Edmond had four different players hit doubles, and racked up 10 hits total.

Megan Flattery, Rylee Kinney, Sydney Nelson, Chloe Lewison and Kacey Kruthoff all drove in runs, while Erin Flattery had two RBI as SEHS stormed back for an 8-6 extra-inning victory.

Timmerman, who turned the game-ending double-play when she snagged a sharp liner at first and quickly fired over to Erin Flattery at third, nearly didn’t make it to that moment.

In the eighth inning, the freshman first baseman was hit with an errant throw on a play called dead by the home plate umpire. As Timmerman tried to recover, Clark went over and asked if she could continue.

“I asked her if she could keep going, because if she couldn’t, she’d have to come out (Timmerman had been pinch-run for in the seventh inning),” Clark recalled. “I told her if she couldn’t finish, that would be fine because I could get someone to step up. She said she’d be fine and I told her that if she’s going to keep playing, she’s got to give me 110 percent and not think about it.

“She did just that. She was still limping after the game, but I’m proud of her for stepping up there and staying in.”

Timmerman, Kinney, Nelson and Kruthoff, along with pinch-hitter Lewison and pinch-runner Sydney Engels, caused Newell-Fonda trouble all night. The quartet had five hits, scored six runs and drove in four.

Back in that first meeting with the Mustangs, the bottom-half of the Gael lineup accounted for just three hits and scored no runs.

Kinney, who delivered the game-winning RBI single in the eighth, had just one hit over her last 12 games entering the night. The freshman second baseman had two singles and drew a walk against Newell-Fonda.

“There is just so much trust on our team,” Clark said. “We trust that everybody is going to give everything they can for us to win. I trust the girls and the girls trust each other.

“We’ve had plenty of things not go right for us this year or haven’t caught a break when we’ve needed it, but this week, we’ve made our own breaks.

“Newell-Fonda didn’t hand us the game — we went out and won it.”

St. Edmond’s record is deceiving this year, as 20 of the 28 games they’ve played have come against either 3A or 4A teams. The Gaels are 7-13 in those outings, going 3-2 vs. 1A clubs and 1-2 vs. 2A teams.

“The girls have bought into what we are teaching,” Clark said. “It’s been a fun season, and it isn’t over yet.”