Given a completely healthy knee, ADM softball junior starter Molly Jacobsen elevated her game to an exceptionally high level this past season, as demonstrated by her individual ranks in the state.

Jacobsen’s 1.27 ERA ranked seventh in Class 4A and her .151 opponents batting average third, while she leads the entire state with 248 2/3 innings pitched and 386 strikeouts. The lefty was named First Team All-State by the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union with lesser number last season, all while pitching through painful patellar tendinitis that required surgery following the season.

Her dominance this season warrants another selection the Union’s first team.

“Molly’s a very good pitcher. I mean, she worked hard in the offseason to develop her pitches and she got stronger as the year went on,” said Tigers head coach Rick Dillinger said. “She has great movement and when she has her best movement, she’s almost unhittable. We’re looking forward to big things from her. We know she’ll do the work she has to do in the offseason. We’re going to try to develop I think – I would like to work with another pitch with her to give her something else to use besides the one she has.

“We’ll continue to have her throw and get better and I think she’s going to be excited for her senior year.”

In all, Jacobsen went 32-5, allowing just 148 hits in the 248 2/3 innings pitched while walking 44, good for a strikeout-to-walk ratio of almost 9:1 and a walk rate of just over one per seven innings.

She was particularly dominant toward the end of the year: after allowing four earned runs in six innings of an 8-4 loss to Boone on June 30, Jacobsen put together a six-start span covering 44 innings in which she surrendered just three earned runs (0.55 ERA) on 19 hits with 70 strikeouts and five walks.

That stretch included her second no-hitter of the season in ADM’s 1-0 win in nine innings over Indianola in the regular-season finale July 8.