CROOKSTON PIRATE GIRL’S SOFTBALL FALLS 11-1 AT RED LAKE FALLS

Red Lake Falls’ starting pitcher Carly Williams cruised through the first inning striking out two Pirates sending the game to the bottom of the first inning. Shelby Breiland doubled with one out to start the Eagles’ offense. Brooke Knott walked putting runners on first and second before Olivia Bulger reached on a fielder’s choice that scored Breiland and gave Red Lake Falls a 1-0 lead. Olivia Bulger advanced to second base on a wild pitch before Gabby Casavan reached on a dropped pop-up at second base allowing Bulger to score giving the Eagles a 2-0 lead after one inning. In the top of the second inning, Jenna Coauette led off the inning with a single before Allie Love singled putting two runners on for Crookston. A passed ball moved both runners in scoring position before a strikeout provided Red Lake Falls’ with their first out of the second inning. Amber Cymbaluk hit a groundball to shortstop for an out that allowed Coauette to score bringing the Pirates within 2-1. “Offensively, we’ve been talking about this game in and game out,” said Nessler, “we’ve got to find a way to string runs together. It was nice to see us cut that lead in half. We were right in the game there early on and through the first few innings too.” A groundout ended the inning stranding Love at third base. The Eagles were unable to add to their lead in the bottom of the second before retiring Crookston in order in the top of the third inning. In the bottom of the third inning, Shelby Breiland opened the inning with a walk before advancing to third base on a fielder’s choice. Olivia Bulger tripled into right-center field plating Breiland and pushing Red Lake Falls’ lead to 3-1. Gabby Casavan followed with a sacrifice fly to center field putting the Eagles in front 4-1 after three innings. Crookston squandered a lead-off single to start the fourth inning after a double play paving the way for Red Lake Falls’ most productive inning of the day. In the bottom of the fourth inning, Greta Philip started the inning with a walk before Jenna Coauette earned her second strikeout of the day. “Jenna throws with a little bit of velocity,” noted Nessler. “When she’s on, in terms of her control, she can be a very dangerous pitcher. I think sh was on today. (Red Lake Falls) is a good hitting team, but Jenna was hitting her spots. What we want to see from Jenna is make the defense work and make the hitters work, and that’s exatly what (Jenna) did today.” With one out in the inning, Kia McGlynn walked putting runners on first and second base before a passed ball, and wild pitch allowed Philip to score giving the hosts a 5-1 advantage. Shelby Breiland singled home McGlynn making it 6-1 before Brooke Knott drove a triple down the right field line plating Breiland while boosting Red Lake Falls’ lead to 7-1. Olivia Bulger singled allowing Knott to score while increasing the Eagles’ advantage to 8-1 before scoring on a dropped infield pop-up giving Red Lake Falls a 9-1 lead into the fifth inning. Both teams failed to produce a run in the fifth inning before the Eagles put the game away in the sixth frame. In the sixth inning, Olivia Bulger reached on an error at third base before stealing second base. Gabby Casavan followed by reaching on an error at shortstop that allowed Bulger to score and Casavan to advance to second base. Abbie Johanneck ended the game with a walk-off RBI single scoring Casavan to close out an 11-1 Red Lake Falls’ win. “We played better defensively,” summarized Nessler. “We kept our composure in innings where they were threatening. Yesterday we definitely didn’t do that in the last two innings. Today, we had a much better body language. Just better abiding by the fundamentals in this game compared to yesterday. Unfortunately, it still ended a little bit early, but we did play better today. Flatout, they’re probably the better team right now and the scoreboard shows it. But, we do have some girls with some athletic ability that know how to play the game so we’ve just got to keep working.”