Posted: 5/2/07
Strong defense plays vital role in Vikings wins
 Now that's some team encouragement. Megan Aho bats while five of her teammates cheer her on during a game against Robbinsdale Cooper April 26 in North Branch. |
The Vikings reached season highs in both hits and scoring as they cruised past the Cambridge-Isanti by a score of 10-0 on April 26.
The girls were a nine-player wrecking crew, scoring runs at will. All nine North Branch starters collected at least one hit in the outing. Megan Aho went three for four with a double; Steph Sax went two for three with two doubles and Megan Ranger went two for four with a double. Elise Holmstrom earned her first varsity hits going two for three on the day.
Senior Tiffany Good pitched her second shutout of the year, blanking the Bluejackets while giving up four hits. She faced 18 batters in five innings of work.
"It was obviously our best effort of the year; offense, defense, and pitching; we had it all working," head coach Ron Trunk said.
On the road, the Vikings squared off with Columbia Heights, sneaking by with a 4-1 win.
North Branch struck first blood, scoring in the top of the fourth and survived a rally by the Hylanders in the in the sixth inning.
Sax picked up the win on the mound. Trunk said it was Sax's best performance of the year. She gave up five hits, walked two and struck out seven.
"Steph really pitched well for us. She mixed her pitches and was hitting her spots to keep batters off balanced. We expect her to continue to pitch like that," he said.
On April 24, North Branch surrendered to Robbinsdale Cooper 4-0. Everything went cold for the girls as they failed to plate any runners.
North Branch shot themselves in the foot in the fourth inning, when they committed two errors, which led to two runs by the Hawks.
Good took the loss on the mound for North Branch.
"We need to supply more run support for our pitchers to be competitive in our games," Trunk said.
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