For the second straight season the Southeast Warren Warhawks defeated the Exira-EHK Spartans 3-0 in the Class 1A Region 3 Final to advance to the state tournament. The Warhawks will head to state for the third straight season and try to improve on their runner-up finish a year ago.

The Warhawks did their damage against the Spartans in the first two innings. Breanna Nolte had a bloop hit land fair on the right field line in the first and took off to try to make it a triple. An errant throw to third let the ball hit the Southeast Warren dugout and Nolte came home for an inside the park homer to score the opening run. The next inning Lexi Clendenen got a base hit and two batters later Lola Shriver hit her first homer of the season, a two-run shot over left-center to put the Warhawks up 3-0. The pitchers dominated most of the rest of the way and the score never changed.

Olivia Ruble was terrific in the circle for the Warhawks, allowing just one hit and notching 8 strikeouts. She improved her mark to 12-5 on the season. Southeast Warren improved to 25-6 on the season and will head to the first round of state on Tuesday night in Fort Dodge.

Exira-EHK head coach Andrea Schwery said the poor start doomed the Spartans.

Coach Schwery thought the young eighth grader Riley Miller did nice job in the circle bouncing back from the homer in the 2nd.

The Spartans say goodbye to two seniors that meant a lot to Spartan athletics, Quinn Grubbs and Shea Burmeister.

Coach Schwery was proud of what they accomplished this season.

The Spartans fell in the Regional Final for the fourth straight season and end the year at 22-5.