Colfax girls split with Central, drop pair to Boyceville

The Viking softball team took a pair of wins at St. Croix Central May 7, winning 14-8 in the first game then added an exciting come from behind win in game two, scoring seven runs in their last at bat for a 12-11 win. After losing two games to Elk Mound (see story elsewhere), they came up short twice at home against Boyceville, losing 6-5 in the first game and 4-1 in the second game.

St. Croix Central–Game 1

Mallie Doucette went 4 for 4 at the plate, slamming her third homerun of the year and added a double for five RBI in the win. Five other Vikings had at least two hits including Alexis Rudi, Emily Tuschl, Lakken Meredith, Sam Simonson and Courtney Ottinger. Colfax led 7-5 after two innings then added five runs in the fourth to give them some breathing room and tacked on two more in the fifth. Rudi earned the win, pitching a six hitter with four strikeouts and five walks.

Colfax              3  4  0 5  2 — 14
St. Croix Central   1  4  0  2  1 — 8

Game 2

It appeared the Vikings would end the day with a split against the Panthers as they committed five errors in the game and were down 5-0 in the bottom of the second inning. They came back with two runs that inning and knotted the score with three runs in the third as Simonson had an RBI double off the fence. Neither team scored in the fourth and fifth, sending the game into extra innings.

Meredith, who took over on the mound in the second inning for Rudi, gave up five hits in the top of the seventh and the Panthers were seemingly in control, up 11-5. But the Vikings, perhaps wanting to spend more time in the beautiful weather, used a couple of walks and came up big with hits from Meredith, Tiernee Knutson, Karina Wait, Doucette and Simonson, then Tuschl, in  her second at bat of the inning smashed a double to bring the winning run in.

Meredith earned the win, allowing six hits with three strikeouts and one walk. Tuschl finished 3 for 3 at the plate and Wait and Simonson both had two hits.

“It was an unbelievable finish to win the second game,” coach Joe Doucette said. “Our veterans batting in the middle of the order (Doucette, Simonson, Tuschl) all had good games and when they do, we score runs. We made three or four nice plays on defense but we also had nine errors total and that hurst us,” he added.

St. Croix Central  4  1  0  0  0 6 — 11
Colfax             0  2  3  0  0  7 — 12

Boyceville—Game 1

After playing Elk Mound a day earlier with the temperature in the 70s, the teams squared off on a Saturday morning with wind gusts up to 30 miles an hour and the temperature hovering in the mid 40s, making for some interesting fly balls.

Boyceville jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first inning on three straight singles, a couple of wild pitches, a Colfax error and another base hit and the Vikings were forced to play catch up the rest of the way. They got one run back in the bottom of the first when Rudi sent a pop up into the wind towards the pitcher which was dropped, allowing Rudi to go all the way to second base. Simonson brought her home on a solid single and after Tuschl drew a walk, the next batter went down on strikes leaving them both stranded.

Buchanan smacked a leadoff triple to start the second and came home on a base hit by Ottinger, but after loading the bases with two out, a ground out ended the inning without further damage. Colfax added another run in the fourth however, as Rudi singled and came around on a solid double from Simonson to make it 5-3.

Boyceville scraped another run across in the top of the fifth and the Vikings,  looking for some last inning heroics like in the Central game, managed to  keep the game interesting. After two quick outs, Ottinger and Wilson singled and Wait slammed a triple to bring them both in, but a pop up ended the game with Colfax one run short of knotting the score.

“We really dug a hole for ourselves early,” coach Doucette said. “We fought back and had a ton of chances to tie it up or go ahead but we couldn’t get a key hit when we needed one.”

Rudi pitched all five innings, giving up just four hits with three strikeouts and two base on balls.

Boyceville   5  0  0  0  1 — 6
Colfax       1  1  0  1  2 — 5

Game 2

Boyceville again took the early lead with two runs in the bottom of the second inning. Colfax cut the lead in half in the top of the third as Wait picked up a three base hit with a solid shot and crossed the plate on a Doucette hit. Simonson drew a walk but with two outs another pop up ended the threat with both runners on base.

The Bulldogs came up with two more runs in the fourth and with the Vikings struggling at the plate, it was too much to make up and they went down 1-2-3 in their final at bat.

“I give Boyceville a lot of credit,” coach Doucette said. “They found a way to grind out two wins on a tough day. They made more plays and had timely hits to win the games.”

Meredith gave up six hits in taking the loss from the circle, striking out two with no walks.

Colfax        0  0  1  0  0 — 1
Boyceville   2  0  0  2 X — 4