Trailing 6-4 in the Class A softball state championship game, the sophomore slugger got her number called, picked up a bat and headed to the plate.

“The umpire tried to tell me it was our No. 3 hitter (due up) and I said, ‘I know,'” West Fargo head coach Pat Johnson said. “She hadn’t hit anything, so I put in Jadyn. We have trained this girl. All year we have put her in during big times in games to pinch hit.”

Iverson hammered a towering two-run home run to right field.

After giving up six unanswered runs, East Region No. 1-seeded West Fargo (24-5) had pulled even, as the scoreboard at the South Hill Softball Complex in Minot ironically displaying “666” with the score knotted at 6-6 in sixth.

Alex Eisen/MDN West Fargo catcher Ashlyn Diemert takes in the moment after catching the final out of the Class A softball state title game in Minot.

The demonic omen wasn’t going to save the West Region No. 1-seeded Bismarck High Demons (28-4).

The Packers platted two more runs in the inning, and then senior ace Courtney Boll — pitching her 20th inning in three days — held Bismarck High scoreless in the top half to lock down West Fargo’s 21st state softball championship in school history.

“That sounds pretty good,” said Johnson, who was named the Class A Coach of the Year. “We lost last year and they didn’t get a chance to try and go for it. This year, it’s nice because we have a lot of new kids too.”

The Packers had won 20 straight state titles (nine sanctioned by the North Dakota High School Activities Association) before Minot High broke that streak last season.

“Each year, it’s really just one for me because it’s a whole new group,” Johnson said. “(These are) a lot of kids who put in a lot of time — two to three hours of practice every night with me, six days a week… They get Sundays off. It’s a process. Hopefully they now believe in that process.”

The Packers showed their appreciation for their head coach by dousing him with water bottles during a television interview after the game. A soaked Johnson was quick to quip that his team would now need to hold practice the next day, a Sunday of all days.

“This feels so great to bring it back where it belongs,” Boll said. “I was just pitching to where Pat (Johnson) told me to. Sometimes the pitches didn’t work, but I had faith in my defense that they would make the plays for me.”

West Fargo gave Boll some early run support to work with. Lead-off hitter Lauren Diemert opened the scoring in the first inning by drawing a walk and eventually coming around to score on a wild pitch by Bismarck High freshman hurler Logan Gronberg.

That was followed by a spree of RBI doubles.

First, the Packers had a pair of them by Tori Nichols-Kraft and Mariah Peters in the third inning to take a 3-0 lead. But, the Demons got back into the game with RBI doubles from Sam Hettinger and Breanna Madler in the fourth.

Bismarck High took the lead for the first time later in the inning when Emma Barta came through with an RBI single and subsequently got to run around all the bases when a pick-off throw over to second base ended up in the outfield.

With two outs in the fifth, Bismarck’s Payton Gerving hit another RBI double and Macy Wetsch tacked on an RBI single.

The Demons had doubled up the Packers, 6-3.

“We never give up,” Bismarck High head coach Kurt Grensteiner said. “These kids have a lot of character, and that comes first. That comes before wins or losses.”

The bases were left loaded in the bottom of the fifth and top of the sixth, as both teams had a chance to swing momentum once again.

West Fargo grabbed that opportunity when it presented itself again in the sixth inning. Despite a questionable base running miscue that cost the Packers an out, Diemert kept the Packers’ rally going with an RBI single.

After the next batter Nichols-Kraft reached base, Johnson looked at his line-up card and turned to his bench. Due up was No. 3 hitter Ashlyn Diemert, but she was 0-for-3 on the day.

Iverson, who came up with a clutch hit as a pinch hitter in West Fargo’s come from behind state semifinal win over Bismarck Century, was given the nod again to hit in a stressful situation.

“It was nerve-wracking, but (Johnson) has put me in that situation many times this year,” Iverson said. “Early in the year, it didn’t always work out the greatest. But, I’m so happy it worked out now.”

Johnson added: “She probably played in three-fourths of our games with most of them were pinch hits in that situation with somebody on and somebody has to be driven in.”

Still in the sixth inning, freshman Sophie Ochocki delivered what turned out to be the championship-winning knock — a two-out, two-run single with the bases loaded.

Ochocki, not shying away from the spotlight, launched her first varsity home run two days earlier to cap a 12-2 mercy-rule win against Minot High in the first round of the state tournament.

“We were down the game before and we ended up coming back,” Boll said in reference to West Fargo’s three-run, seventh-inning rally on Friday to beat Century in the semifinals 3-2. “So, I was very confident that we could definitely do it again.”

Bismarck High put the tying runner on first base in the top of the seventh. But, an acrobatic catch in center field and a pop up behind home plate sealed the Demons’ fate.

Ashlyn Diemert, who gave up her spot in the batting order to allow Iverson to step in and crank a decisive home run, caught the final out next to the backstop fence.

A swarm of Packers greeted Diemert and Boll.

The yearly state title celebration that West Fargo had grown accustomed, but missed out on last season, was underway once again.

After taking the ordinary and routine team pictures with the state championship trophy, Johnson directed Kaylee Lyter to move to the center of the group and turn around.

Everyone then pointed to the jersey number on Lyter’s back: No. 21.

Alex Eisen covers Minot State athletics, the Minot Minotauros and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @AEisen13.