The Cook County Vikings’ varsity softball team had a busy end of the week (April 26, 27) as they played four games on Thursday and Friday.
The Vikings hosted Moose Lake/Willow River on Thursday and were defeated 7-3 after losing the lead in the fifth inning. “We played a good game today. It hurts to lose the lead in the late innings like that but Moose Lake is a good team, and we had a few miscommunications on defense that helped them out,” said head coach Peter Lucken.
Abbie Crawford pitched for the Vikings going seven innings and striking out three. Senior Harleigh Lindquist led the offense going 3-4 at the plate.
On Friday the Vikings traveled to a tournament in Deer River. The Vikings’ first opponent was Chisholm. Abby Prom took the mound as the Vikings’ starter and gave up one run in the first inning.
The Vikings answered back in the bottom of the frame, however, scoring 8, which included a two-run home run from Abbie Crawford.
Crawford would go on to have 5 RBIs in the one-sided victory as the Vikings won their first game of the season 17-1.
“Everyone hit the ball in this game, and we kept the ball in front of us on defense,” said coach Lucken.
The Vikings moved on to play Deer River in the winner’s bracket, with Abbie Crawford pitching.
There was no score in the game until the fourth inning when Deer River took a 2-0 lead.
The Vikings answered in the fifth inning with an eight-run rally.
“We caught up with their pitcher in the fifth and fought hard for our hits,” coach Lucken said. “Alyssa Spry had a 14 pitch at bat and won it to give us the lead. We played great defense behind Abbie Crawford who pitched a fantastic game.”
Crawford finished the game with eight strikeouts. The Vikings won 9-5, and the Vikings advanced to the championship game.
The Vikings’ momentum ran out in the championship game against a hard-hitting Greenway team, and the team fell 10-0.
The Vikings did manage four hits in the shutout, but three errors allowed Greenway to keep the lead.
“The championship game was tough, Greenway is a good team,” Lucken said, adding, “And we had a three-hour wait before we could play it. I think that (wait) affected the girls, especially in the cold.”
The Vikings took second place in the tournament winning their first two games of the season.
Vikings versus Barnum
The Cook County Vikings softball team made a beeline by bus to Barnum on Wednesday, May 2, to play a make up game against the Bombers.
Abbie Crawford took the mound for the Vikings and pitched well for the first three innings.
“At the start of the game Abbie was locked in and looked fantastic,” said head coach Peter Lucken. “Things changed however, in the third inning when Crawford walked the bases loaded and gave up a grand slam.”
That big hit took the wind from the Vikings’ sails.
“We had a rough third inning, we can’t do anything when batters are walked and then the one missed spot puts up four runs,” noted the coach.
Lucken said that at the same time his team was having some difficulties on the mound the Viking hitters were also stymied by the Barnum pitcher.
“We only had one hit in the game by Bianca Zimmer. We hit a lot of hard balls right at people and struck out far too much.”
The Vikings lost by a score of 10-0.
Vikings versus South Ridge
Cook County Vikings finished off a busy softball week with a heart-breaking loss at home to South Ridge 6-4.
The contest was close the whole game.
“It was good to see us put up a competitive game against a good team like this,” coach Lucken said.
South Ridge struck first, scoring one in the second inning, and never trailed again. South Ridge was leading 4-0 in the fourth when the Vikings scored two to cut the deficit in half.
However defensive errors allowed South Ridge to score two more runs as the game went on. The Vikings showed life again in the bottom of the seventh but South Ridge held on to the lead.
“We out hit them 10-6 but we also had five errors to their one.”
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