RED LAKE FALLS SOFTBALL LOSES ON WALK-OFF AGAINST ROSEAU

The Red Lake Falls Eagles Softball team was in action on Thursday taking on the Roseau Rams in an Agassiz Valley Conference game on Conference Night in Greenbush. A very well played game with solid hitting, pitching, and defense went the way of the Rams as they earned the walk-off victory by a score of 6-5. “Roseau played really well. I talked to their coach after the game and she said this was probably the best game they’ve put together all year,” said the Red Lake Falls Head Coach Ben Hanson.

Red Lake Falls got things started in the first inning with two runs. Jayden Breiland and Shelby Breiland singled and Gabby Casavan scored Jayden on a double that nearly cleared the fence and Greta Philipp singled home Shelby for the 2-0 lead. “It would have been nice if Gabby’s would have got up a little bit higher, but it got us on the board,” said Coach Hanson. Roseau answered nicely in the bottom half with two runs of their own. Justine Vonasek and Molly Jensen both singled giving way to Kayla Moser who hit a double to right-center field to score both runners and tie the game at two after one inning.

Red Lake Falls took back the lead in the top of the second inning with another run. Bella Amiot worked a walk with one out and then back-to-back singles from Shelby Breiland and Gabby Casavan scored Bella to take the lead back at 3-2. “I thought we would keep on going with our hitting but the bats went silent for a few innings,” explained Coach Hanson. “Very little offense for us for awhile.”

Each team went scoreless in their next at-bats allowing Roseau to grab their first lead of the game with two runs in the third inning. With one out, Shavonda Bender singled and came in to score on Molly Jensen’s double to tie the game. Jensen later came in to score on a wild pitch and a passed ball to give the Rams a 4-3 lead.

Neither team could get anything going after the Jensen double as both pitchers settled in and combined to retire the next 13 batters in the game. “Bella pitched pretty well and if we make the plays behind her today we win the game,” said Coach Hanson. “If you end up putting the ball on the ground and you make errors, you lose games.”
Roseau would break that streak in the bottom of the fifth with two outs on a triple from Bender and an RBI single from Jensen for a 5-3 lead.

Red Lake Falls tied the game back up in the top of the sixth inning with a couple of runs. Gretchen Cota walked with one out, Jayden Breiland followed with a single, and Amiot walked to load the bases. Shelby Breiland then hit a soft grounder off the end of the bat right at second base. Amiot was able to avoid the tag as she snuck into second base allowing Cota to score and Jayden never stopped running from second. None of the Rams noticed she kept running with all the commotion at second base and she was able to score on the play as well to tie the game at 5-5. “Jayden had a heads up run coming all the way around from second because they weren’t watching her,” added Coach Hanson. “Bella did a nice job doing a little dance around the girl with the ball and got into second base.

In each of the team’s next at-bats, they got their leadoff batter on, bunted them to second, and a groundout advanced them to third with two outs, but neither team was able to get the big hit to score the run and they remained tied headed to the bottom of the seventh inning. “We were just kind of waiting for one more hit to out us ahead but it didn’t come,” said Coach Hanson.
Roseau had the chance for a walk-off victory and they took it. With one out, Bender singled, and got to third on a soft grounder to first that was mishandled allowing everyone to reach safely. Kayla Moser came to the plate and hit a hard ground ball that was fielded by the shortstop Casavan. Her throw to the plate was too late as the speed of Bender allowed her to score in time and give the Roseau Rams a 6-5 victory.

Red Lake Falls regular season comes to a close with a 13-5 record. They will wait to see who they play in their playoff matchup on Tuesday. “After today we have a few things we have to fix, but hopefully we get it to where we aren’t putting so many balls on the ground,” said Coach Hanson. “We aren’t going to be able to do that and win some big games.”
Roseau finishes the regular season with an 8-10 record. They will play Crookston in a Section 8AA play-in game at 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 1.  The winner of that game will play the #1 seed Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton at 5:00 p.m.

For Red Lake Falls
Shelby Breiland- 3 for 4, 2 RBI, run
Gabby Casavan- 2 for 3, double, 2 RBI
Jayden Breiland- 2 for 4, 2 runs
Greta Philipp- 1 for 4, RBI
Bella Amiot and Gretchen Cota- 2 walks, run each

For Roseau
Molly Jensen- 3 for 4, double, 2 RBI, 2 runs
Kayla Moser- 2 for 4, double, 3 RBI
Shavonda Bender- 3 for 4, triple, 3 runs
Justine Vonasek and Jasmine Hovda- 1 hit each