Elk Mound softball shuts out Spring Valley, bombed by Fall Creek Crickets
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The final two games of the regular season produced two vastly different outcomes for the Elk Mound softball squad.
The Mounders capped their Dunn-St. Croix Conference schedule last Monday, May 13 with a 10-0 home-field victory over the Spring Valley Cardinals. The six-inning win gave Elk Mound 10-4 finish and share of second place along with Boyceville in the final 2024 conference standings.
The following day, Elk Mound traveled to Fall Creek to face the state’s second-ranked team in Division 4. The Crickets, unbeaten champs of the Cloverbelt West at 14-0 and 18-2 overall, showed exactly why they have garnered the attention of coaches statewide as they bombed the Mounders 16-1 in just three innings.
Elk Mound headed into the WIAA playoff with a 11-9 mark following last week’s split. The fifth-seeded Mounders, following a bye in last Thursday opening round of Division 3 regional competition, traveled to #4 Arcadia yesterday (Tuesday, May 21). The winner will likely go to top-seed Prescott (15-8), who hosted #8 Nekoosa and was the co-runner-up (with Somerset) in a tough Middle Border Conference to Ellsworth, for Thursday’s regional championship.
Spring Valley
Junior pitcher Hailey Meyer tossed a one-hit shut out in Elk Mound’s conference and home finale versus Spring Valley last Monday, May 13.
Meyer whiffed ten Cardinal batters without issuing a single free pass to earn the complete-game victory retiring 15 of the 16 batters she faced to help the Mounders blank their visitors 10-0 in six innings.
Meyer also helped her own cause as she collected two of the ten hits Elk Mound collected off Spring Valley hurler Maddie Shaffer, and a pair of RBIs. Elisabeth Beskow finished with two hits for the Mounders as well, including a triple and tallied three RBIs. Alexis Joachim also added a pair of base hits and Alexandria Solberg had a double for her lone hit of the game.
Elk Mound also took advantage of four walks, five Spring Valley errors and its base-running prowess to steal nine bases with Kendra Garnett swiping four of them.
The Mounders scored single runs in the first, third and six innings but the big frame came in the fourth when they pushed five runs across home plate highlighted by Solberg’s two bagger. Elk Mound also added a pair of scores in the fifth.
Fall Creek
Elk Mound scored a run in its first at bat, but unfortunately it would be its only score of the game.
The Crickets scored three times in the bottom half of the first and never looked back.
Fall Creek then rocked Mounder pitcher Hailey Meyer in the second for 11 runs to take a 14-1 advantage.
Elisabeth Beskow relieved Meyer in the third inning but surrendered two runs on a hit and two walks in two-thirds of an inning as Fall Creek won 16-1 via mercy rule which ends a game after three innings when one team holds a 15-run advantage.
Meyer absorbed the loss as she surrendered 14 of the 16 Cricket runs on nine hits, walked three and did not have a strikeout. In addition, the Mounder defense committed two errors.
Ellie Schiszik had two of Elk Mound’s three hits in the game and scored its only run on a sacrifice fly by Kendra Garnett. Meyer had the Mounders other hit.