Submitted photo: Former Fort Dodge softball players (left to right): Jalen Adams, Tristin Doster and Tory Bennett stand together in Palm Springs, Calif. this past weekend.

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — Andi Adams couldn’t help but laugh — mostly, I’m sure, to hide the nerves.

Her daughter, Jalen, was getting ready to pitch as a true freshman for the University of Iowa against the top-ranked softball program in the nation, UCLA, on Friday. One of her other former Fort Dodge players, fellow collegiate rookie Tory Bennett, was starting at shortstop and batting third for the Hawkeyes. Another, sophomore infielder Tristin Doster, was set to see action over the weekend as well.

“Jalen has no clue (the Bruins) were No. 1,” Andi admitted to me hours before first pitch on Friday. “She said, ‘well I knew they were up there somewhere.'”

Seven months ago, Adams and Bennett were taking on the likes of Mason City and Marshalltown. This was still a game and technically the same sport, but the similarities started and ended there.

The mighty Bruins had been averaging nearly eight runs per contest in starting the season with a 14-0 record. They’d already scored eight runs or more seven times, and had ripped third-rated Florida the day before, 10-0 in five innings.

Andi was trying to be both the protective and realistic mother. She later said in the text conversation, “if she can just keep it close, it’s a win.”

“I’m looking at other scores (from UCLA’s schedule) and of Top-10 teams … I’m excited but so nervous,” Andi continued beforehand. “She can’t wait. Jalen pitching and Tory at short and batting third. It’s a dream.”

Jalen allowed the first two runners to reach base via hits on a brisk evening at appropriately-named Big League Dreams Sports Complex, but escaped the bottom of the first inning unscathed by inducing a double play. The second inning was more of the same, as Iowa wiggled its way out of bases-loaded, no-out situation.

“Before the game, my nerves were high — to say the least,” Jalen said afterward. “But I felt more excited than anything to compete against UCLA. The fact that they were ranked No. 1 and I had the opportunity to even face them (as a true freshman) was almost too perfect to be real.

“I felt relief getting out of the (second) inning with the bases loaded and no outs. Basically after the first inning, my nerves were more calm and I felt like I was meant to be there.”

Was she ever. The Hawkeyes struck first when Bennett drove in Nia Carter, who had tripled to right field. Adams worked a scoreless third. Then a scoreless fourth.

At 1-0 Iowa in the fifth, the mighty Bruins were on the ropes.

UCLA scratched across an unearned run to tie things up in the bottom of the fifth. And then, leading off the bottom of the sixth, Adams made her only real mistake, allowing her first earned run all season on a solo home run by redshirt junior Sharlize Palacios — a powerful two-time first team all-Pac 12 catcher.

The Bruins had their first lead at 2-1, and they fought off a last-ditch Hawkeye rally in the seventh to survive by that same final score.

I was messaging Andi during the late-night west coast game, which didn’t start until after 10 p.m. locally. At one point, I found myself telling the Hall of Fame Fort Dodge softball coach that the words I typed “felt more and more surreal” as things progressed. Jalen had found her rhythm. Bennett drove in the run and made a diving catch at shortstop — one of those highlight-reel video clips that goes viral on social media.

Iowa ultimately couldn’t topple the Bruins, but the Hawks were right there. And the Dodgers’ former young guns — all still teenagers — were a big reason why.

At one point, I told Andi that, even trying to think optimistically, I couldn’t have predicted this. She conceded she was, in a lot of ways, equally surprised.

Yet Jalen had worked over 24 innings and allowed just one earned run on the season so far. Bennett was batting right around .400 while regularly starting at short and batting third. Doster — who had five home runs and 19 RBI as a freshman a year ago — had two hits and drove in a pair of runs in the weekend invitational.

Even after a relatively rough weekend in California — Iowa was edged by California and Oregon State after the UCLA setback — the Hawks were off to a respectable 8-6 start, which included a 2-0 win over ranked Mississippi State in Florida earlier this month.

Andi and I joked about the jump from high school doubleheaders to facing the nation’s best Div. I programs in a matter of months. To us, it defies logic. To players like Jalen Adams, Tory Bennett and Tristin Doster, there’s an “anytime, anywhere, anyone” mantra that’s always been their driving force.

Andi playfully rolls her eyes at her program’s “ignorance is bliss” mindset, even as Fort Dodge reached the state championship round in three consecutive seasons and won it all in 2021. She swears that Jalen and her friends regularly had no idea what they were up against; an opposing team’s talent, records, rankings and resources meant nothing to these Dodgers.

We witnessed it in Fort Dodge for five consecutive seasons. Maybe now there will be an extension of it in Iowa City.

We didn’t see it coming, but maybe we should have. These kids are gamers. Always have been, and probably always will be. They’ve taken on bigger and better. They’ve punched above their weight and been the perpetual underdog. It’s never bothered them before. In fact, it’s always motivated them to keep defying the odds.

Mason City or Mississippi State. Urbandale or UCLA. Sioux City East or Syracuse. The mentality is the same.

Anytime. Anywhere. Anyone.

Eric Pratt is Sports Editor at The Messenger. Contact him via email at sports@messengernews.net, or on Twitter @ByEricPratt