The No. 8 (Class 4A) Fort Dodge softball team handled their business ahead of a showdown with top-ranked (5A) Waukee Northwest, blitzing Waterloo East here Thursday at Rogers Park.

Scores were 12-2 in four innings and 14-1 in four.

Coming off a road split with Des Moines Roosevelt, the Dodgers quickly jumped on the board with an eight-run first vs. the Trojans, highlighted by a home run from Cadence Touney.

Grace Nichols added her own longball later in the game as Lucy Porter moved to 5-1 on the year with three perfect innings inside the circle.

“What a night for Grace,” FDSH head coach Andi Adams said. “She did a great job of waiting for her pitch and putting a perfect swing on it all night.

“I thought we were very smart at the plate by not going after bad pitches. Obviously, it’s a different pitcher we saw compared to other ones we play, but our girls were confident at the plate.”

Porter, who struck out five, also went 2-for-2 at the plate with a triple and a double.

Ashlyn Wills finished 3-for-3, stealing three bases while scoring once and driving in another run, Meah McCaleb had two runs, an RBI and a steal, Nichols drove in four with two hits and Touney plated a pair of runs.

Nichols connected on two more homers in the nightcap as Ellie Doster went 3-for-3 with three RBI. McCaleb had two hits, two runs, two RBI and stole two bases while Hope Alstott scored three times and swiped three bases.

Aubrey Alstott earned the win, striking out five inside the circle while Porter had her second triple of the night.

“Our defense did a nice job behind our pitchers all night,” Adams said. “The pitchers threw strikes and let (the defense) make plays behind them.”

Before Waterloo East departed, several of the Dodger players went over to offer encouragement to the team.

“That just shows the kind of passion for this sport that these girls have,” Adams said, “and the kind of respect they have for anyone that plays it.”

Fort Dodge will conclude its week with Waukee Northwest in a single contest back here beginning at 7 p.m. The Wolves went 34-8 last year, reaching the state tournament behind current freshman sensation Sophia Schlader.

FORT DODGE 12, WATERLOO EAST 2 (4 inn.)

Waterloo East 000 2 — 2 1 4

Fort Dodge 812 1 — 12 9 1

WP–Lucy Porter (5-1, 3 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 5 K, 0 BB). LP–Elynn Smith (3• IP, 9 H, 7 ER, 1 K, 3 BB).

HR–WE: Siyanna Cody; FD: Cadence Touney, Grace Nichols. 3B–FD: Lucy Porter. 2B–FD: Ellie Doster, Lucy Porter. RBI–WE: Siyanna Cody (2); FD: Ashlyn Wills, Meah McCaleb, Grace Nichols (4), Cadence Touney (2), Calliegh Zimmermann. SB–FD: Meah McCaleb, Ava Wessels, Ashlyn Wills (3).

FORT DODGE 14, WATERLOO EAST 1 (4 inn.)

Waterloo East 100 0 — 1 3 4

Fort Dodge 563 x — 14 10 0

WP–Aubrey Alstott (4-2, 4 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 5 K, 0 BB). LP–Aubrey Mielke (2 IP, 7 H, 10 ER, 0 K, 1 BB).

HR–FD: Grace Nichols (2). 3B–FD: Lucy Porter. 2B–WE: Aubrey Mielke, Graysyn Downing; FD: Aubrey Alstott, Ellie Doster, Hope Alstott. RBI–WE: Aubrey Mielke; FD: Ellie Doster (3), Meah McCaleb (2), Grace Nichols (3), Aubrey Alstott, Lucy Porter. SB–FD: Meah McCaleb (2), Kam Gochee, Calliegh Zimmermann, Natalie Baade, Hope Alstott (3), Emersyn Lara.