DES MOINES — It was the opportunity the Davis County Mustangs were looking for all day long. Neither head coach Todd White or third baseman Clint Foster were about to let it go by.

But even as Foster and White turned for home, nothing about the decisive play of the Mustangs’ Class 2A state quarterfinal rematch with Alta-Aurelia was certain. White watched on from his third base coaching box as Foster charged for home in the bottom of the sixth inning in a scoreless tie.

A great bullet throw from Warrior leftfielder Jalen Henningsen had beaten Foster to home plate, giving his team a chance to take the scoreless tie into the seventh. His throw, however, pulled Alta-Aurelia catcher Alex Stephen slightly to the left and allowed Foster to see a bit of an opening.

“When I came down the line, I saw the catcher was leaning my way so I tried to dive away from him a little,” Foster said. “At first I was a little worried about the play, but then I saw where his glove was and I knew I had him beat. I knew the ball would be close, so I was looking for any way to get around the tag.”

Foster dove headfirst away from the tag of Stephen, touching home plate with the lone run of the night. Top-ranked Davis County survived and advanced, keeping their hopes of defending their Class 2A state title alive with a 1-0 win Saturday night at Principal Park in Des Moines.

Foster became the second Davis County player to slide in with a winning run in this postseason. Exactly one week earlier, Connor Young slid home from second base on a Trevor Swartz throwing error to lift the Mustangs to a nine-inning, 5-4 win over Eddyville-Blakesburg/Fremont in the District 10 finals.

“I can’t say enough about these kids. They just keep plugging along,” White said. “We’ve had numerous opportunities in the few games and they just keep finding a way to get the job done.”

No. 1 Davis County (42-1) advances to the state semifinals for the third straight year. The Mustangs will face third-ranked North Polk Thursday at 2 p.m.

Unlike last year’s 8-0 state quarterfinal win over Alta-Aurelia, Saturday’s game turned into a pitchers’ duel, pitting reigning Iowa player of the year Calvin Mathews against Alta-Aurelia’s Austin Delp, who shared the role of staff ace for the first time this season. Delp matched the Mustangs’ dominant ace, giving up just two hits and no earned runs to the surprise of everyone, including himself,

“Coming into this game, I was pretty nervous pitching against the champs from last year,” Delp said. “I started mixing it up and kept them off balance. Basically, I just didn’t want to give them anything good to hit.”

That philosophy got Delp out of a pair of jams he created for himself. The Warrior senior forced Josey Garmon to pop out after a walk and two hit batters loaded the bases for Davis County in the third. In the fifth, a pop out by Mathews left Austin Roberts stranded at third after a walk and a Josh Martsching single.

“It’s what I was afraid of coming in,” White said. “(Delp) has the kind of stuff I knew we could get a bat on, but we just kept hitting right at their guys in the field. We just couldn’t seem to get that one timely hit.”

But the Mustangs’ philosophy of at least making contact at the plate finally paid off, as the Warrior defense cracked enough in the sixth. Senior Neil Marshall — one of the top hitters and main reasons 23-10 Alta-Aureila made it to state after a 1-5 start to the season — made a bad throw on Foster’s one-out grounder to third to give Mustangs a sixth-inning base runner.

Foster stole second and stood at the base with two outs. That’s when Calvin Utt hit the second groundball of the inning to Marshall, who let the ball through for the second error of the inning, allowing Foster to finally break the scoreless tie.

Utt, the Mustangs’ catcher, also helped seal the win in the top of the seventh. Henningsen, the only Warrior hitter to reach base against Mathews, led off the seventh with his second hit to put the tying run on.

Henningsen tried to steal second, but was gunned down by Utt for the first out of the frame. Mathews then finished off his two-hit shutout by getting A.J. Lange to swing and miss for his third strikeout of the contest.

“Once Calvin got that runner out at second, I was pumped up,” Mathews said after moving to 13-0 on the mound in his final season at Davis County. “I just started rearing back and firing. I started mixing a lot better too. Those last two batters I faced were really off balance.”

CLASS 2A STATE QUARTERFINALS

No. 1 Davis County 1, Alta-Aurelia 0

A-A    000    000    0    —    0    2    2         

D.C.     000    001    x    —    1    2    0

Alta-Aurelia battery — Austin Delp (L, 5-5) (6IP, 2H, 1R, 0ER, 4K, 2BB, 2HP), Alex Stephen catching.

2B — Jalen Henningsen.

Hits — Henningsen 2-for-3.

Davis County battery — Calvin Mathews (W, 13-0) (7IP, 2H, 0R, 0ER, 10K, 0BB), Calvin Utt catching.

Hits — Josh Martsching 1-for-2, Clint Foster 1-for-3.

Runs — Foster.