MANSFIELD — When her playing days are over, Clear Fork senior Hallie Gottfried may want to follow in her father’s footsteps.
The younger Gottfried already sounds a little like dad, longtime Clear Fork coach Jeff Gottfried.
“It’s hard to beat a team three times,” Hallie said when asked about the prospect of playing Madison in the Division II district championship game.
The Colts and Rams meet for a third time at 5 p.m. Friday in Willard with the winner advancing to next week’s Sweet 16. Clear Fork swept a regular season doubleheader two weeks ago.
“You throw out the records at this point,” Jeff Gottfried said after the Colts rallied for a 4-2 win over Bellevue in Tuesday’s district semifinals. “Everybody says you can’t beat a team three times in one year. We’re going to try.
“(Madison coach Tim Niswander) is going to preach that in their dugout, too. He’s going to say it’s tough to beat a team three times and they’re going to be ready to play.”
The district tournament has turned into a redemption tour of sorts for the Rams. Madison avenged a regular season loss to Ontario with a 10-6 win in Tuesday’s district semifinals. The Rams led 8-0 after two innings.
“We were ready to play,” said Niswander, who picked up his 200th career coaching victory Tuesday. “We’ve been talking about this for a long time.”
The Rams have flexed their offensive muscle this postseason, outscoring two opponents by a combined score of 30-6. Madison opened with a 20-0 win over crosstown rival Mansfield Senior in the sectional final.
Sophomore slugger Bri Bowles belted a grand slam in the second inning against Ontario. Bowles had a monster game in the nightcap of the doubleheader against Clear Fork on May 8, launching a pair of home runs in a 9-8, nine-inning loss.
“I knew we would be here if we kept working together and kept working as a team,” Bowles said. “We’re going to keep going hard.”
The Colts needed a late rally to dispatch Bellevue in Tuesday’s late game. Hallie Gottfried belted a game-tying two-run double in the top of the fifth and knocked in an important insurance run in Clear Fork’s two-run seventh. Meanwhile, pitcher Ashtynn Roberts worked out of a bases-loaded, nobody out jam in the bottom of the sixth to keep the game tied.
“As a team we had to work together,” Roberts said afterward. “We know we can count on each other to get those outs.”
It will take more of the same Friday. Roberts said.
“We played them once before and we did really well as a team,” Roberts said. “It’s going to be exciting.”
Jeff Gottfried agreed.
“It will be fun,” he said, “as it always is when we play Madison.”
