MINNEOTA — The Minneota/Canby softball team hosted the RTR Knights on a cold, blustery day.  Despite the miserable playing conditions, the Vikings used a combination of strong pitching, good defense and timely hitting to carry them to a 10-6 victory over the Knights. 

Madison Hennen pitched a complete game for the Vikings, notching 11 strikeouts and allowing nine hits, and the defense committed no errors to hold off a young RTR team.

After Hennen put down the Knights in order in the top of the fourth inning, Minneota took the lead for good.  Three straight singles by Courtney Antony, Kani Kockelman and Jayla Jerzak brought home two runs, and singles by Gretta Buysee and Kiersyn Hulzebos plated two more runs to give the Vikings a 5-2 lead.  

RTR struck first, with Laken Baartman leading off the game with an intentional walk.  After a groundout, Jaida Fricke tripled to score Baartman, and she scored on a 2-out single by Kynsi VanderPlatts to take a 2-0 lead.  They held that lead until the bottom of the third inning, when Grett Buysse led off with a single.  Joelle Otto drove her in with a single to make the score 2-1, in favor of the Knights.  

Baartman, an all-state player last year, is playing shortstop this season after catching the last three seasons. She also pitched a shutout inning of relief, striking out a batter while allowing two hits and no walks.

“Each game, we are trying to improve, and we are trying play one game at a time to try to get better,” Baartman said. “I felt good at the plate today, and I even got to pitch a couple of innings today, something I haven’t done since the sixth grade!”

RTR answered Minneota/Canby’s go-ahead rally with two runs in the top of the fifth inning.  Morgan Appel led off with a single, and one-out singles by Laken Baartman and Paisley Thooft, and a groundout by Fricke made the score 5-4.  Minneota/Canby got back one of those runs when Hennen walked, and scored on a wild pitch and an error, to make the score 6-4 in favor of the Vikings.

Fricke pitched the game’s first five innings for RTR, allowing seven earned runs on 12 hits with seven strikeouts and a walk.

In the sixth inning, the Knights went down in order, but in the bottom half of the inning, the Vikings were able to pad their lead by scoring four runs.  Gretta Buysee started the inning off with a single and Izabelle Hulzebos drove her home with a double.  Kiersyn Hulzebos drove in her third run of the day with a single, and three more singles by Hennen, Courtney Antony and Dani Kockelman drove in two more runs to make the score 10-4 going into the seventh inning.

RTR fought back with two runs in the top of the seventh inning.  Baartman got a one-out double, followed by an RBI single by Thooft.  Fricke drove in her second run of the day with a single, and Daryssa Cruz hit into a fielder’s choice.  But Courtney Antony made a great grab of VanderPlatts’ hard grounder to end the game, with Minneota/Canby on top 10-6.

“We knew the RTR had great hitters, especially Laken,” Kiersyn Hulzebos, recently named Minneota’s Female Athlete of the Year, said. “She still had a good day, even though we walked her intentionally to start the game.  But our pitching and defense was great today, but it took a while for our bats to get going.  Eventually, we started hitting and forced them to change pitchers, which was good for us.  Overall, I think we played well to beat a good, young RTR team.”

Head Coach Heidi Louwagie added, “We hit the ball well today, after we got through the lineup once.    The hitters came through, although I felt we looked at too many third strikes.  We need to protect ourselves a little better, but overall, we played well.”

Minneota/Canby improves to 6-0 with the win and hosts Tracy-Milroy-Balaton for its next game on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. Russell-Tyler-Ruthton falls to 2-5 and goes on the road to face Heron Lake-Okabena/Fulda for its next game on Tuesday at the same time.

RTR Head Coach Darren Baartman stated, “We are a young team, and the last few games we have been much more aggressive at the plate.  I think we are playing with a lot more confidence, and we have played several really good teams this year.  But we have been in all those games into the late innings, and then we have some things happen to us that lead to them scoring runs.  With this young team, it is a process, and we are working hard to get better every day.  I see some encouraging things,  and we just have to keep working and making progress.  We have to keep ourselves in games, and put us in position to win at the end of the game.”