“Good enough” will never be good enough for the Fort Dodge softball team.

On one hand, the second-ranked (Class 4A) Dodgers had a respectable showing on Monday night against No. 3 (Class 5A) Southeast Polk. The Rams used three solo home runs to ultimately post a 3-1 win at Rogers Park.

Fans were treated to a competitive ballgame, and head coach Andi Adams’s squad could have easily left the field feeling like they were right there against one of the best in the state’s largest class.

On paper, that’s all true. Adams will never accept a moral victory on behalf of her program, though, and her players aren’t of that mindset, either.

“They’re frustrated,” Adams said. “Trust me, they’re not thinking, ‘well we were close, so that feels good.’ It doesn’t. Losing isn’t fun or satisfying in any way.

“Now did we do some good things and take a step forward (last night)? Yes. But we’re still a work in progress, and will continue to be. We’re finding out a lot about ourselves, and we know we’re going to drop some games in the process. I know Southeast Polk feels the same way (the Rams have five losses playing one of the toughest schedules in the state so far). The overall record isn’t as important at the end of the day, but you also don’t want to be OK with just hanging in there to the point where you start to be content with that.”

Jesslyn Stairs, Jayda Long and Addison Brunner all went deep for the Rams (8-5 overall), who did very little else against FDSH pitcher Lucy Porter. When the Dodger sophomore missed her spots, though, Southeast Polk — a ballclub with four seniors and three juniors in its starting lineup — capitalized.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers managed only three hits against Long.

“We’re (an offense) that has to be able to manufacture runs against top pitchers, and we didn’t do that,” Adams said. “We have to execute our bunts and make the most out of our opportunities. We had the leadoff runner on (base) in the second and fifth (innings) and got her to third (base), but came up empty both times.”

The Dodgers (8-3) got an RBI single by senior Lydia Lara in the fourth to pull within 2-1, and nearly tied the contest in the fifth. Sophomore Ashlyn Wills walked and reached second base on a sacrifice by senior Maggie Elsbecker. An errant throw by the catcher then allowed Wills to advance to third, but she was called out at home trying to score on a controversial call to end the inning.

“Did I think she was safe? Yes. But you know how you solve that problem? Don’t put yourself in a position where one run matters that much,” Adams said. “And Lucy did a nice job for the most part, but she fell behind in the count a few times and has to settle into an earlier rhythm.”

Porter allowed only two runners to reach after the third inning. One was on Brunner’s long homer to straight-away centerfield, though.

Sophomore Cadence Touney had a pair of hits, scored the lone run and made a handful of nice plays in left field for Fort Dodge.

The Dodgers now take on 10th-ranked (Class 1A) St. Edmond on Tuesday at Rogers Park for the first time since 2014. First pitch is set for approximately 7 p.m.

SE POLK 3, FORT DODGE 1

SE Polk 011 000 0 — 3 5 2

Fort Dodge 000 100 0 — 1 3 1

WP–Jayda Long (6-4; 7 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 2 K); LP–Lucy Porter (5-3; 7 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 K). LOB–SE Polk 3, Fort Dodge 4. HR–SEP: Jesslyn Stairs, Jayda Long, Addison Brunner. S–FD: Maggie Elsbecker.