Lady Vikings finish with two wins, one loss
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by Marlys Kruger
Sports Correspondent
The Colfax girls were finally able to get some softball games played under decent conditions when they went on the road last week for a trio of contests. They won a pair of games against two different teams, 15-11 over Durand April 13, then stayed there and defeated Glenwood City 15-5. They didn’t fare as well in Spring Valley the next day however, dropping the game to the Cardinals 12-11.
If they can get on the field, the Vikings (2-2, 4-2) will have a busy week that started with a non-conference home game versus Chippewa Falls McDonell on Monday, April 17 followed by two more home contests versus D-SC foe Elmwood/Plum City on Thursday and Gilman on Friday. Playing a third straight day, Colfax is slated to compete in a tournament in Shell Lake on Saturday. Next Monday,
April 24, Colfax will play in Glenwood City.
Durand
It was a closely played game throughout but the Vikings used a couple of big innings to pull out the win. The game was tied 2-2 after two innings but Colfax went ahead 4-3 after the third then came up with four tallies in the fourth for a 8-3 advantage. The Panthers got two of those runs back but in the fifth inning, the Vikings came up with five huge runs to give them some breathing room at 13-5. Durand picked up a trio of runs in the sixth and seventh innings but the two Colfax runs in the seventh helped them hold on for a very good road win.
“We overcame a lot to win this game,” coach John Dickinsen said. “We did not play well defensively, having eight errors which led to six unearned runs. The girls hit the ball well with 16 combined hits and had some big plays both at the plate and defensively at times,” he added.
Glenwood City
After the Hilltoppers scored three runs in the top of the first inning, the Vikings were forced to come back, using three straight singles by Ella Peterson, Jada Anderson and Brynn Sikora to pick up a pair of runs. Colfax hurler Mallory Field shut the Toppers down in the second inning and the Vikings rallied again for four runs in the bottom of the inning, starting when Audrey Ebert was hit by a pitch. McKenna Shipman singled, Ella Peterson found her way on base via a fielder’s choice and a Topper error, Anderson singled and a few more errors by the Toppers allowed the Vikings to pull ahead 6-3.
Glenwood City picked up a pair of runs in the third to draw closer but another six runs by Colfax helped them to begin pulling away after four innings of play. Shipman started things off with a base hit, followed by Ella Peterson’s single, Sikora blasted a triple, Hannah Peterson singled, Emma Medin doubled, Alexis Schindler singled and Ebert slammed a double.
Colfax added their final three runs in the bottom of the fifth to end the game due to the 10 run rule.
“After overcoming a 3-2 deficit after the first inning, the girls hit the ball really well and we were able to score a lot of runs again,” coach Dickinsen said. “I’m proud of how the girls handled adversity in this game and the Durand game. It was a long, hot night and we came away with two hard earned wins. Being able to score 30 runs and have 32 hits with several other hard shots that Durand and Glenwood City made great plays on was a great mental point for our team,” he concluded.
Leading hitters for both games combined were Sikora who was 6-for-8 with two doubles, a triple and seven RBIs, Hannah Peterson went 6-for-9 with four RBIs and four stolen bases, Anderson was 5-for-9 with a double and two RBIs while crossing home plate eight times, Ella Peterson was 4-for-9 including a double and five runs scored, Shipman batted 4-for-9 and Medin finished 3-for-8 with a double.
Field pitched both games to pick up a pair of wins.
Spring Valley
The Cardinals are a much improved ball team the last couple of years after struggling to win many games before that. This contest was close all the way to the end but five errors in the game by the Vikings played a part in the loss. The score was knotted at 1-1 after two innings and 4-4 after three stanzas but the Cardinals came up with three runs in the fourth for a 7-4 advantage.
The Vikings pecked away with a run in the fifth and three in the sixth to pull ahead 8-7 but five huge runs by Spring Valley in the bottom of the inning made it 12-8 in their favor. Colfax battled back with three more runs in the seventh but came up a run short of knotting it up and absorbed the one run loss.
Field pitched the entire game again and gave up just six hits, but walked nine Cardinals while striking out six. Hannah Peterson batted 2-for-4 with both a pair of RBIs and runs, Ella Peterson was also 2-for-4 including a double and two RBIs, Sikora scored three times and knocked one run in and Schindler collected a trio of RBIs.