The Dakota Valley Panthers punched their ticket to the championship game of the Class A State Softball Tournament with a 10-6 win over second-seeded Tri-Valley at Players Softball Complex on Friday afternoon.

Brennan Trotter got the scoring started in the first inning for the Panthers when she hit an RBI single to give her team a 1-0 lead.

“Since this morning, we’ve been saying we need to start early,” Trotter said. “We knew that we’d be going in as guests. We had to start early and try to score two runs an inning and that’d keep us in the game.”

Tri-Valley responded with a pair of runs in the bottom half of the frame. The first run came on an error before Ava Christensen delivered an RBI single.

Dakota Valley regained the lead with a three-run third inning.

Trotter produced another RBI single, before Emma Barnett and Paige Moffatt each drove in runs to give the Panthers a 4-2 lead.

Dakota Valley extended its lead in the fifth on a Payten Konopasek single to right field.

In the bottom of the fifth, Tri-Valley pulled to within 5-4 with a pair of runs. Isabella Wetmore-Ocampo scored on an error and Kadence Davey had a sac fly.

However, that momentum was short lived as the Panthers scored three runs in the top of the sixth. Barnett drove in another run on a single in the frame.

“The girls locked in,” said Dakota Valley coach Jason Anderson about the sixth-inning surge. “We do a combo small ball and long ball, and you just never know what you’re going to get because our long ballers can hit small, too. We just put the ball in play and make them have to make a play, and good things happen.”

After Tri-Valley scored in the bottom of the sixth, Trotter once again came up big in the top of the seventh when she hit a deep fly ball to left that resulted in an error allowing two more runners to score and push the margin to 10-5.

Trotter, who finished with three hits, talked about her mindset when batting.

“See ball ,hit ball,” Trotter said. “I just knew this game we were going to have to hit, going to have to get the ball in play, and I just did that.”

The Mustangs mustered one more run in the bottom of the seventh for the final margin of difference. Tri-Valley will take on West Central in the third-place game at 2 this afternoon.

Dakota Valley will meet Elk Point-Jefferson in the title game at 4. The Panthers defeated EPJ 12-2 during the regular season.

Anderson said it will take a team effort in the championship contest.

“We can’t be a bunch of individuals on the team. We need to be one team united cheering for everybody no matter who’s play, no matter who’s playing, the batting order, who’s in the field, who’s in the dugout, because everyone has a role,” Anderson said. “If they embrace the role and cheer for everybody, it brings the energy up to the team and great things can happen.”

Dakota Valley 103 013 2 – 10 8 5

Tri-Valley 200 021 1 – 6 10 8

Emma Barnett and Mallory Riibe; Emry Jones, Kadence Davey (6) and S Halverson. 2B – Tri-Valley, Ava Christensen and Emry Jones.