Mounders sink Vikings for second time, fall to Toppers; while Vikes pluck Cardinals

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by Marlys Kruger
Sports Correspondent

After beating Colfax 8-3 in the first game of the season, the Lady Mounders took the series with a 5-0 win on their own field last Thursday, May 20.

Earlier in the week, Elk Mound lost a heartbreaker to Glenwood City 4-3 while the Vikings were coming off their first win of the year over Spring Valley by a 12-11 margin.

The Mounders, who are currently fourth in the conference at 5-3 and 7-6 overall, have a pair of away games to start the week. They were in Mondovi on Monday and at Spring Valley Tuesday before returning home to host Durand for the start of a three-game home stand on Thursday, May 27 with conference leaders Elmwood/Plum City coming to town Monday, June 1 and Glenwood City Friday, June 4.

Colfax, 1-7 in conference and overall, also had to face the top two teams as it played at Plum City against E/PC Monday and hosted Glenwood City on Tuesday. They head into the brief Memorial Day holiday break with a game in Boyceville on Thursday, May 27 and return on June 1 with a game in Mondovi.

Colfax vs. Elk Mound

McKenna Diermeier tossed a two hitter while striking out 12 Vikings to earn the win from the mound.

Colfax had a chance to put runs up in the first inning when they had runners on second and third by taking advantage of Diermeier hitting Marissa Harmon and walking Jada Anderson and throwing a couple of wild pitches. But, Diermeier and her defense took care of business by getting  two fly ball outs and her first strikeout to end the threat.

After two more strikeouts, the Vikings put a runner on third in the second stanza by way of a walk to Jenna Goodell and a basehit by Alexis Schindler. But, Diermeier fielded a ground ball and threw the runner out at first to finish off the inning.

Colfax pitcher Anna Geissler was holding the Mounders in check, pitching three scoreless innings but her offense wasn’t helping her much. Bailey Bradford banged a double for the Vikings in the third and moved up on a ground ball out, but once again a strikeout ended the threat.

It was all Elk Mound from there on out as they did all their damage in the fourth inning, scoring five runs with Hannah Larson, Morgyn Hallum, Issie Hollister, Stella Rhude, and Lauren Garnett all crossing home plate. Rhude drove in two runs while Diermeier picked up an RBI in the inning to take a lead they would not give up.

With two outs in the fifth, Anderson reached third on a Mounder error and a ground out, but a ground ball to the Elk Mound second baseman ended another chance for Colfax to score.

Colfax went down in order the final two innings as Diermeier whiffed four of six batters to finish things off.

Geissler took the loss by giving up just six hits with two walks and eight strikeouts. Diermeier had two of those hits while Hallum, Larson, Kalle Rhude, and Stella Rhude all had one.

Colfax vs. Spring Valley

With neither team posting a win so far this season, the Vikings and Cardinals were battling to stay out of the cellar of the Dunn-St. Croix Conference.

Spring Valley held a 1-0 lead in the top of the first but the Vikings took advantage of a walk, some wild pitches, an infield error and a solid shot to center by Goodell that brought in two of their four runs in the bottom of the inning. A struggling Cardinal pitcher then hit a batter and threw some more errant pitches while her defense couldn’t make a couple of plays that allowed Colfax to score twice more.

Things fell apart for Colfax in the fourth when they gave up six runs which came off some solid Cardinal hits and several throwing and fielding errors on the Viking’s part. When they finally got the third out they were down 7-4, but the deficit didn’t last long.

The Vikings tacked on four more runs in the bottom of the inning to go up 8-7 but it was nip and tuck the rest of the way.

Down 9-8, Anderson smashed a ball out of the park to make it  9-9 after five innings, and it was 10-10 at the end of six.

When the Cardinals went up 11-10 in the top of the seventh, things were looking a little dismal for Colfax.

After a strikeout to start the bottom of the inning, Harmon sent a little pop up to the first baseman who was looking right into the sun and dropped the ball. Anderson and Bradford drew walks to load the bases, setting the scene for Mallory Field who sent a hard shot to left field. The outfielder kept moving back but the ball went over her head, allowing the winning run to score in walk-off fashion.

Not only did Field bring in the winning run, she was credited with her first win on the mound. She relieved Geissler in the fifth inning and gave up five hits with a couple of walks and strikeouts.

Goodell and Field had two RBIs while McKenna Shipman and Anderson both had one.

Glenwood City vs. Elk Mound

The Mounders started the week just one game behind conference leaders Glenwood City and Elmwood/Plum City.

They fell behind 2-0 to the Toppers in the first inning but knotted it up in the third with help from a single by Larson to bring in one of the runs.

Glenwood City scored twice in the fifth with one of the runs coming from a bunt.

The Mounders picked up a run in the sixth but despite out hitting the Toppers, 8-5, they couldn’t string enough of them together to score any more runs.

Hallum had a solid night at the plate with a pair of hits, including a double while bringing a runner home and scoring once, while Hollister was 2-for-3 at the plate and Diermeier slammed a triple and scored once. Larson and Garnett both had a hit with an RBI each.

Diermeier struck out seven Toppers while giving up five hits and four free passes.