Chickasaw girls advance in regionals

    It wasn’t until Karly Fitzgerald rounded second and looked toward coach Jack Seelhammer at third that she knew she had just scored the first run of regional competition Wednesday night.    With two down, the Chickasaw was up to the plate in the first inning and the bases were empty against North Fayette Valley. “I hit it in the gap and I was just running for a double,” recalled the senior. “I heard somebody say something, I thought the ball was caught and just started jogging, but then I saw Jack’s face and I knew it went out.”    It was the first home run of Fitzgerald’s career, the first of 13 runs and the first of 17 hits the Chickasaws would pound in the 13-3 win, which will advance the team to play at Dyersville Friday against Beckman Catholic.    After the two-out homer, the floodgates opened as — still in the first inning — Emma Nicolaisen tripled, Katherine Hemesath doubled and both Lexi Rasmussen and Savannah Anderson singled to add another three runs.    “It helps when we get our bats going right away, I think it boosted our confidence,” Fitzgerald said. “Every inning Jack kept on saying ‘we have to score this inning, we have to score this inning’ so our goal was to score every inning and we did that.”More on the story may be found in the July 8 Tribune.