It wasn’t their best softball of the year, but it was good enough last night for Pella Christian to beat Danville 7-1 in the quarterfinals of the class 2-A region 6 tournament in a game heard live on 92.1 KRLS.

The fourth-ranked Eagles jumped out early with a three-run homer by Lizy Van Manen in the first inning, and had a 5-0 lead after Emma Schnell’s second inning RBI double.

It got sloppy from there, with base running blunders leading to three Pella Christian runners being thrown out and a throwing error resulting in Danville’s lone tally. Coach Karen Harrill is confident they’ll get those things cleaned up, and says that when it’s all said and done, there was only really one thing that mattered last night.

“It’s a win and now we move forward. There were some jitters as there always are in the first round. They have nothing to lose and we have everything to lose as they play with that lower seed mentality. But there were some great things that happened in this game – Liz’s huge dinger and getting quite a few runs in the first, then following it up with more in the second. Getting those jitters out is huge.”

Schnell went the distance in the circle to earn the victory, giving up just one unearned run on four hits with two walks and seven strikeouts.

Pella Christian is 31-5 on the season and will play Louisa-Muscatine in the second round tomorrow night on Eagle Lane. They beat Wapello 8-5 last night.

The Eagles got some additional good news last night. With Oskaloosa’s 2-0 victory over Indianola, Pella Christian clinched the outright Little Hawkeye Conference championship for 2017.