Posted: 4/18/07
Irondale first casualty for NB
 Senior Maggie Johnson takes a grounder during the girls battle with Cloquet April 14 in North Branch. They lost the game by a score of 7-2. Johnson went 2-4 in the game. |
By Steve Morris
It was a busy opening week for the North Branch girls softball team as they played four games in five days. When the dust settled, the Vikings won one and lost three. In the four games, the girls were outscored 34-12.
The seniors led the charge for the girls first win of the year against Irondale April 10.
Dani Sonnenfeld had an outstanding game against Irondale, going 4-4 with four RBI's, which included the game winner in the bottom of the eighth. The Vikes took home their first conference win of the season, by a score of 5-4.
"Sonnenfeld had a big game," first year head coach Ron Trunk said.
Senior Tiffany Good earned the win on the mound, going the distance while striking out six and walking two.
Defensively, it was a game to be remembered for the girls. In all, the Vikings committed one error which is excellent for the start of the season. After Irondale had already plated three runs, Megan Aho threw out a runner at home trying to score from second. The inning ended with the infield turning a double-play.
"Our defense played a solid game ..." Trunk said.
Rounding off the opening week of play, the girls surrendered to Spring Lake Park during their season opener April 9 by eight runs.
Steph Saxe took to the mound, going six innings, striking out four while giving up four earned runs in the 9-1 loss.
"Steph pitched a solid game but the one error we made led to five unearned runs," Trunk said.
All nine of the Panther's runs were scored on two outs.
Spring Lake Park played hard to beat as the Panthers had hot sticks. They finished with nine hits and no errors.
Against Hermantown on April 14, the Hawks downed Red and White 14-4. Hermantown jumped out front early, scoring eight runs in the first two innings. It was too big of a hole for the Vikes to crawl out of as they managed to plate four runs on four hits.
Tiffany Good took her first loss of the season on the mound, giving up 10 earned runs.
Saxe went 2-3 at the plate with a double and in her first varsity game, Karisa Wilson hit a single.
"We started to hit better so that was encouraging, but you have to give credit to Hermantown; they really hit the ball well," Trunk said.
On April 14, the Vikings hosted the Cloquet Lumberjacks, losing 7-2.
Trunk placed Saxe on the mound to help the team over a tough Lumberjack team.
The game was up for the taking entering the fifth inning with the score tied. This is when the North Branch defense hiccuped, allowing two unearned runs.
Cloquet scored seven runs on nine hits, compared to two runs on six hits for the Vikes. Maggie Johnson and Megan Ranger both went 2-4.
"I really feel like we took our self out of the game mentally after the error in the fifth ... our bats need to start to come alive to take some pressure off our pitchers and defense," Trunk said.
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