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Hermantown 6, CL 5

Trailing 6-2 in the fifth inning, the Wildcat softball team rallied, but fell one run short as they lost at home to the Hermantown Hawks 6-5 Saturday, April 9.

The Wildcats started the game short a few players who were taking an ACT test. Those missing included pitcher Whitney Slagerman. Rachel Nelson pitched the first two innings, allowing one run on two hits.

The Wildcats tied it up in the bottom of the second. Karina Swanberg doubled, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a passed ball. Trailing 4-1 in the fourth, Swanberg led off with a single. Three Wildcats walked, leading to another run to bring the Wildcats within two. Hermantown added two more runs to lead 6-2 going into the bottom of the sixth. Three walks and a single by Ariel Novak led to three Wildcat runs, but the Wildcats failed to push another run across. The Wildcats went out one-two-three in the bottom of the seventh and the final score remained Hermantown 6, Chisago Lakes 5.

Swanberg, with a double and a single, was the only Wildcat with more than one hit for the game.

“Rachel Nelson did a great job pitching the first two innings,” said Wildcat head coach Steve Fisher. “Today, we couldn’t come up with a big hit in the fourth when we had the bases loaded. And Hermantown had 11 hits. They really put the bat on the ball today. They’re a good team.”

Chisago Lakes 5, Virginia 3

In the second game of the April 9 doubleheader, the Wildcats offense came alive as they scored three runs in the top of the first and went on to beat Virginia 5-3.

Brittany Lofgren and Andrea Nelson singled in the first and Ariel Novak knocked them both in with a double. With two outs, the hot-hitting Karina Swanberg drove in Novak with a single. That put the Wildcats up 3-0.

Virginia scored one in the second and two in the third to tie the game at three runs apiece. In the bottom of the third, Jenny Reed doubled and scored on a single by Novak to put the Wildcats up by a run. Novak moved to third and a ground out scored Novak with the Wildcats fifth run. The last four innings were scoreless, and the final score remained Chisago Lakes 5, Virginia 3.

Novak had three hits, including two doubles, for the Wildcats. Swanberg and Andrea Nelson had two singles apiece and pitcher Whitney Slagerman struck out nine in the victory.

Spring Lake Park 6, Chisago Lakes 3

The Wildcats record fell to 3-2 on the season as they lost at home to conference opponent Spring Lake Park 6-3 Tuesday, April 11.

Spring Lake Park scored two runs in the first inning on an error, a double and a sacrifice fly. They added single runs in the third and fourth innings and led the Wildcats 4-0 going into the bottom of the fourth.

With one out in the fourth, Ariel Novak tripled in Andrea Nelson. But Novak was stranded at third as the next two batters went out and the scored remained 4-1. A two-run homer by Spring Lake Park put the Panthers up 6-1 after five innings.

The Wildcats rallied in the bottom of the sixth. Nicole Oehme doubled to score Jenny Reed and Andrea Nelson, who had both singled, but that was all the Wildcats could manage. The final score was Spring Lake Park 6, Chisago Lakes 3.

Andrea Nelson had two hits, Oehme had two RBIs and pitcher Whitney Slagerman had 11 strikeouts in the loss.

Wildcat head coach Steve Fisher said “They had two players reach base on errors and two players walk – and all four of them scored. We need to be ready to play every game. Every team we face will have good pitching.”

The Wildcats were scheduled to play at Spring Lake Park Tuesday, April 18. They return home to host North Branch today, Thursday, April 20, at 4:15 p.m., and stay at home to face Cloquet Saturday, April 22 at 1 p.m. And next Tuesday, April 25, they play Robbinsdale Cooper at New Hope Elementary at 4:15 p.m.

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