It wasn’t under the lights at Principal Park, rather under the morning sunshine at Southeast Polk High School, but Payton Shull’s walk-off base hit was still just as exciting, sending Pella to the class 3-A baseball semifinals with a 2-1 win over Dallas Center Grimes in a game heard live on 92.1 KRLS. Shull had struck out three times against Mustang ace Cole Baker, struggling to catch up with the outside fastball in his first three at bats. He came to the plate in the seventh with Caleb Piersma standing at second base with two outs, and got a center-cut heater on the first pitch.

Pella started the scoring in the second inning when Tyler Hillman was hit by a pitch with one out and moved to third on a Landon Vander Leest single. With two outs and A.J. Kingery at the plate, Vander Leest took off for second, and when Kingery hit a grounder up the middle, he was able to beat Mustang shortstop Matt Graham to the bag, allowing Hillman to score. Little Dutch Coach Jesse Jablonski says that the play was actually a missed sign…

Dallas Center Grimes scored its run in the fifth on a pair of hits and two Pella errors. It could have been more, but Tyler Hillman fielded a one-hop rocket off the bat of Austin Kloewer (KLAY-ver) with two outs and runners on second and third to end the threat, setting up Shull’s heroics two innings later. The expected pitching dual between Pella’s Grant Judkins and D-C-G’s Cole Baker didn’t disappoint, with Judkins striking out 11 in the complete game effort and allowing just the one unearned run on three hits to get the victory. Baker was the tough luck loser, striking out 13 while giving up two runs on five hits. Pella is now 34-4 on the season and will play Harlan tomorrow. The Cyclones were 4-0 winners over Dubuque Wahlert in a game that was also played yesterday morning at Southeast Polk. First pitch is scheduled for 1:30 tomorrow afternoon inside of Principal Park, and you can hear the game live on 92.1 KRLS.