It may not have come as easy as it did in their first three match ups, but the Little Dutch baseball team beat a conference foe for the fourth time this year to earn a trip to Principal Park.

Pella High was victorious 7-4 against Oskaloosa in a game heard live on 92.1 KRLS.

Head Coach Jesse Jablonski told KNIA/KRLS Sports after the game it’s a program-defining victory, and a long time coming for the school.

“I just can’t be more proud these kids,” Jablonski said. “All of the guys that have been in the program over the years and have been through some tough years, and to watch everyone pull together and know that this day was somewhere in the future, and then you watch this group pull together and play their hearts out all year long.”

The Indians were able to get the jump on Pella early, scoring a pair of runs in the top of the 2nd. But Pella rallied in the bottom half, keyed by a bases-clearing double off of the bat of Freshman Landon Vander Leest. He says Oskaloosa wasn’t going to pitch to Grant Judkins, so it was up to the rest of the lineup to pick up the slack.

“I knew they weren’t going to throw much to Judkins,” Vander Leest tells KNIA/KRLS Sports. “We knew me and some of the other guys in the bottom part of the lineup had to do some more work with runners on base tonight.”

Junior Tanner Wood earned the victory on the mound, giving up four earned runs in 5 1/3 innings, and Judkins earned his first save of the season.

The 33-4 Little Dutch will face another conference opponent in the first round of the Class 3A State Baseball tournament–Dallas Center-Grimes, on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in Des Moines. You can listen to the entire Pella state tournament run on 92.1 KRLS.