Far left: Sophomore pitcher Alex Slanga pitched a great game against Carlton in the playoffs. Above: Carrie Palmer backed up shortstop Hannah Toftey on this play. Toftey made the tag on the Silver Bay Mariner runner. Left: Abby Prom made a great catch on this low throw to first base.
There would be no magic for the Cook County Vikings this year in their quest to oust top-ranked Carlton from the Section 7A playoffs.
Last year the underdog Vikings came in with the lowest seed and stunned the top-seeded Carlton Bulldogs 10-6 with freshman pitcher Alex Slanga taking the win for the Vikings.
This year the match-up was the same, but the results different with Carlton beating the Vikings 7-1.
The south subsection 7A playoff game was played on Tuesday, May 20.
Carlton’s record is now 14-1 while the Vikings ended their season 2-10.
“The girls played a good game against Carlton,” said Head Coach Jessie Anderson. “We had been 10-runned by this team earlier in the year and never really hit much against their star pitcher. But the girls went into this game with a good attitude and weren’t intimidated by her. We hit the ball a lot to the right side and fouled a lot of pitches off, but unlike the last time we faced her, we got the bat on the ball. Alex pitched a real strong game for us.
“We were down 2-0 going into the 5th inning. Carlton scored 3 runs in the 5th and 2 more in the 6th inning. We scored our run in the 6th inning. Alex Slanga walked and Sarah Deschampe moved her to second on a sacrifice. Carrie Palmer singled and moved Alex to third. Maddie Roy singled and drove her home. Unfortunately we struck out in our next two at bats to end the rally.
“Overall I was really proud of the way our defense played. We had Hannah Toftey, a freshman playing shortstop and Abby Prom, an eighth-grader playing first base. Trace McQuatters, who hurt her knee earlier in the year, played in the outfield and played well. Our senior outfielder, Megan Lehto was hurt in a car accident last Thursday and we didn’t think she would be able to play, but she toughed it out and played the entire game and did great. The entire team played really well and I’m proud of them.
“We’re young, so we have been moving players around trying to get the right fit.
“We lose two seniors from the team, Sarah Deschampe and Megan Lehto, and we will miss their leadership. Sarah has played in the outfield the last three years and we have used Megan everywhere. Both girls have given a lot to the program,” said Anderson.
Leave a Reply