Left: Catcher Alyssa Spry stretches to corral an outside pitch in a recent home game. Above: Katie Peck shows good form as she waits for a pitch. Staff photos/Laurie Johnson
A road trip to Moose Lake/ Willow River ended with the Cook County girls’ fastpitch softball team falling 16-6 to the Double-A school.
Emma Smith started the game pitching, and Abbie Crawford came in in relief.
The Vikings scored one run in the first inning. “Alyssa Spry singled and stole second. Emma Gesch moved her to third on a sacrifice bunt, and Crawford had a beautiful hit to left center to score Spry,” said Viking head coach Jessie Anderson.
The Rebels answered back right away with 5 runs.
“In the fourth inning, Katie Peck started us off with a single and Anna Helmerson got on by an error. Then we had two big two-out hits. Spry singled and scored Peck and Gesch had a clutch hit with a double to the fence to bring in two runs. Gesch also scored on a wild pitch,” coach Anderson said.
In the sixth, Spry singled, and Gesch moved her to second. Emma Smith had a nice single up the middle scoring Spry, and she took second on the throw home.
Moose Lake scored two in the second, one in the fourth, one in the fifth and ran away with it in the sixth.
“Overall we felt OK with how the game went,” said Anderson. “We stayed in the game and never let up. We had a few big errors that led to several runs, but our young defense also made some good plays.
“I was also very happy with our hitting. Seven of our nine batters had at least one hit; we had two sacrifice bunts we laid down. Our older girls all finally stepped up and hit the ball with runners on base. Spry was 3 for 3 with a walk, a steal, and two runs. Spry has been consistent all season and is doing a great job leading this team.
“We need to keep working on our defense so we can cut down the number of runners getting on base and so our pitchers have to throw fewer pitches. We’ll have to play good defense against a strong Southridge team if we want to stay in the game with them,” noted coach Anderson.
Weather permitting, the Vikings play Ely at home on Saturday, May 4 with the JV taking the field at 11 a.m. and the varsity playing at 1:30 p.m.
On Monday, May 6 the Vikings will play Barnum here at 3:30 p.m. The next day the Vikings host Two Harbors at 3:30 p.m. and on Thursday, May 9 McGregor plays here at 4 p.m. Come out and cheer for your Vikings!
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