The Crookston Pirate Softball team traveled to Thief River Falls on Tuesday night for the first round of the Section 8AA Tournament. The Pirates scored first, but the #2 seeded Prowlers scored 11 unanswered runs to secure an 11-1 win in six innings, ending the Pirates season. “I thought there were a lot of positives from this game,” said Pirates Coach Sunny Bowman. “It doesn’t necessarily show in an 11-1 score, but I thought we did things well. They just hit balls where we weren’t and were able to score runs.”
Emily Bowman would reach base in the top of the first inning for Crookston on a Prowlers error, but Crookston failed to get her across home plate leaving the score 0-0 heading to the bottom of the first inning.
Jenna Coauette got the start in the circle for Crookston and delivered a 1-2-3 bottom of the first to get the Pirates back into the dugout with the score still 0-0.
The Pirates would score the first run of the game in the top of the second inning. Reese Swanson would leg out an infield single to lead off the inning and then steal second base to put herself in scoring position. Ally Perreault would then smack a 1-out single to left-field scoring Swanson for a 1-0 lead. Alex Luna would also work a 2-out walk but the Prowlers would get out of the inning with nothing more for the Pirates. “I thought the girls came out ready to play today and had really good at-bats,” said Pirates Coach Sunny Bowman. “They put the ball in play a lot and one thing that plagued us all year was strikeouts looking and we didn’t have any of those today.”
The Prowlers responded with five runs in the bottom of the second inning and showed why they are one of the best teams in the section. Oliva Hawkins led off with a double, and after a Pirates error put runners on first and second base, Carlie Rogalla would deliver a 1-out rbi single. Another hit from the Prowlers would score their second run to take a 2-1 lead, and after another Crookston error, Thief River Falls took a 3-1 lead. Thief River Falls would tack on two more runs later in the inning on a hit from Kora Sorter and take a 5-1 lead into the third inning. “I’ve always talked about the big inning with the girls all season and even from an offensive standpoint of us needing to do that,” said Pirates Coach Sunny Bowman. “They put the ball in play and found ways to get on base and when you do that it can be tough to stop.”
Crookston would go 1-2-3 in the top of the third inning, but Jenna Coauette would retire the Prowlers 1-2-3 in the bottom of the frame on just 4 pitches. That kept the game at 5-1 in favor of Thief River Falls after three innings of play. “After the game you try to find positives,” said Pirates Coach Sunny Bowman. “We had a couple of perfect innings defensively and this was one of them. So that was definitely something positive to take away from this game.”
Crookston would threaten in the top of the fourth inning with a 1-out single from Cassie Solheim, followed by Perreault reaching on a Prowlers error. After a groundout moved the runners to second and third base with 2-outs, Carlie Rogalla would work out of the jam with a groundout to end the inning and preserve the Prowlers 5-1 lead.
The Pirates would get out of a huge jam in the bottom of the fourth inning. The first three Prowlers hitters would all get hits to load the bases with nobody out. The next hitter would hit a line drive to Addie Fee at second base. Fee would secure the catch and fire to first base doubling the runner off for the second out of the inning and leaving runners on second and third base. The next Prowlers hitter would pop out to Solheim at shortstop and the Pirates would put up a 0 on the scoreboard keeping the game 5-1 Thief River Falls with three innings remaining.
Crookston would get a leadoff single from Addie Fee in the top of the fifth inning, but a line-drive double play off the bat from Julia Lailier would end the inning. In the bottom of the fifth inning, the Prowlers broke the game open for good scoring five more runs. The Prowlers would get six hits in the inning and take advantage of two more Pirates errors in the process and put the game out of reach.
The Pirates would go 1-2-3 in the top of the sixth inning, and the Prowlers would score one more in the bottom of the frame to win the game 11-1 in six innings due to the run rule.
Crookston finishes their season with a final record of 1-12. They will lose seven Seniors from the team as Kendall Bergquist, Ally Perrreault, Aleah Bienek, Jenna Coauette, Brianna Kelly, and Lizzy Sanchez will all graduate later this week. “All these Seniors have meant so much to us,” said Pirates Coach Sunny Bowman. “They all brought something to the table and they were a fun group to have around.”
Thief River Falls improves to 12-5 and will march forward in the Section 8AA Tournament.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | R | H | E | |
| Crookston | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4 |
| TRF | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 11 | 15 | 2 |
| Pitching | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K |
| Jenna Coauette- Crookston (LP) | 5.1 | 15 | 11 | 8 | 1 | 0 |
| Carlie Rogalla- Thief River Falls (WP) | 5 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Olivia Tougas- Thief River Falls | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
For Crookston –
Ally Perreault – 1 for 2, rbi
Reese Swanson – 1 for 3, run
Addie Fee – 1 for 3
Cassie Solheim – 1 for 3
For Thief River Falls –
Jacey Novak 2 for 3, 2 runs, rbi
Brooklyn Broadwell 2 for 3, 2 rbi, run
Kora Sorter, 1 for 3, 2 rbi
Natalie Novak, 1 for 3, 2 runs
