Nobody puts Baby in the corner.
And in this case, Baby is the Mount Vernon softball team.
After consecutive years when Center Point-Urbana upset the Mustangs on their home field in regional play, Mount Vernon finished the job Tuesday, July 14, beating the Stromin’ Pointers 6-5 and dirty dancing all the way to the state tournament in Fort Dodge.
“We were not gong to lose this year,” senior Carly Elliott said. “It wasn’t an option.”
No. 4 Mount Vernon (33-7) was scheduled to play No. 5 PCM (26-4) at 1:30 p.m. Monday, July 20, in a Class 3A quarterfinal.
“We’re at a stage now where we can play anybody, and beat anybody,” Mount Vernon Coach Robin Brand said.
The Mustangs knew their recent regional history, and were reminded of it, often. They lost to CPU 3-0 in a regional semifinal in 2024, and lost 6-4 in a regional final to CPU in 2025. Both games were at Van Metre Field.
“It means so much,” sophomore Annabelle Smith said. “No one on our team has been to state in softball, so it just means a lot.”
Early on it looked like the ghosts of regional upsets past would be exorcised, easily. Junior Hayden Gookin hit a two-run home run in the first inning, sophomore Sophia Patten had an RBI double in the third and an RBI single in the fourth, and Mount Vernon built a 5-0 lead after four innings. No. 9 hitter Sorell Telecky had an RBI ground out for the fifth run.
CPU had runners on in each of the first five innings, but every time the Mustangs rose the occasion.
In the first inning, junior catcher Brynlee Bettcher threw out Grace Estling trying to steal second base.
In the third inning, Smith, the left fielder, made an incredible diving catch with two runners on and only one out.
“Honestly, I couldn’t really see the ball, because the sun is really bad in left field,” Smith said. “But i was just thinking, I’ve got to at least try for it. So i laid out, and then felt it in my glove, and i was like, oh my gosh. I got really excited.”
Even when CPU (18-19) got two runs across in the top of the sixth inning on a passed ball and an RBI single by pinch-hitter Kathlyn Beck. That only made it 5-2.
But in the top of the seventh, the Stormin’ Pointers got an RBI single from Estling and then a two-run double by Kyra White to tie the game up at 5-5.
Not again!
“They scored that fifth run, and I was like, you have got to be kidding me,” Gookin said. “This isn’t about to happen.
“But they didn’t have the lead. We just needed to score one.”
And Mount Vernon had the top of its order coming to the plate.
“I knew we had some big bats coming in,” Elliott said. “So I wasn’t worried at all. I knew we could do it.”
No. 2 hitter Lucy Wischmeyer led off with a walk, bringing up Iowa recruit and all-around big bopper, Gookin, who had already hit a monster two-run home run to left field in the first inning.
“I did have a feeling,” Smith said. “I think we all had a feeling.”
CPU Coach Dan Hiller said he never thought about giving Gookin a free base.
“Besides that home run she hit earlier, we had her 1 for 8 (against us),” he said, referring back to the Mustangs doubleheader conference sweep of CPU on June 8. “It’s was not like I was overly scared in that situation.”
Gookin had to battle. One of her swings was a foul ball that could’ve been caught for the first out.
Instead, given a second chance, the junior hit a blast over the left field fence. Pandemonium ensued.
“I knew right away it was gone,” Gookin said. “That is something you can’t even dream of. Hit a walk-off homer to go to state.
“It is such a blessing.”
It was such a crazy moment, Wischmeyer was called out for straying too far out of the baseline. So it ended up just being a solo shot, rather than a two-run blast. Mount Vernon won, 6-5.
Brand shrugged off the lost extra run. “We call that mudita!”
And if you didn’t know, that is the “ancient Buddhist concept of sympathetic joy … taking pleasure in the happiness of others.”
“This team is very resilient,” Brand said. “We are very together and very strong. I never got nervous.”
It is debatable if everyone felt the same.
“I didn’t expect to cry like this,” Gookin said while holding the state qualifier banner. “I knew it was going to be happy tears. But not this many.”
Gookin also got the pitching win, striking out nine, to go with her two big homers.
“She can do anything,” Smith said.
“We were under pressure a lot,” Elliott said. “(Hayden) can get us through it.”
However the summer finishes, the trip to state certainly puts an exclamation point on an incredible two-year stretch for Mount Vernon girls athletics.
It includes a state volleyball title, a state basketball title, and a state track title. Plus a runner-up team finishes at state wrestling and cross country, and a trip to the state golf meet (with Lisbon).
“They have worked so incredibly hard,” Brand said. “They’ve done every little thing right.”
Stats
CPU 000 002 3 – 5 10 0
Mount Vernon 220 100 1 – 6 10 1
Ella Simon, Alexis Anderson (4) and Tara Crowley; Hayden Gookin and Brynlee Bettcher. W – Gookin. L – Simon. 2B – Kyra White (CPU), Sophia Patten (MV), Annabelle Smith (MV). 3B – Ella Simon (CPU). HR – Hayden Gookin 2 (MV).