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The North Branch softball team opened its season by splitting two conference games. The Vikings lost 9-1 at Spring Lake Park Monday, April 9. Tuesday, April 10, they beat Irondale 5-4 in the Vikings' home opener.

At Spring Lake Park, the Panthers led the whole way. In the bottom of the second, SLP used a two-base error, a stolen base, a sacrifice fly and four consecutive two-out hits to take a 5-0 lead.

North Branch scored its only run in the top of the fourth. A one-out single put senior Maggie Johnson on base. The Viking shortstop advanced to third when third-sacker Dani Sonnenfeld singled. Sonnenfeld took second on a delayed steal before Kayla Obitz hit a sacrifice fly to score Johnson.

In the bottom of the fourth, SLP clinched the win when it scored four two-out runs. The first two Panthers were retired on pop ups. But, with two outs, the home team strung four hits (triple, single, single and home run) together to score the final four runs of the game.

The Vikings had four hits and only one error in the loss. The Panthers collected nine hits and were perfect in the field. Steph Saxe took the loss, pitching six innings, striking out four and walking one while giving up four earned runs.

"Steph pitched a solid game, but the one error we made led to five unearned runs," said North Branch head coach Ron Trunk. "All nine runs were scored by SLP with two outs recorded."

North Branch 5, Irondale 4

Tiffany Good pitched all eight innings as the Vikings picked up their first win. She struck six Irondale batters and walked just two to gain the victory.

Dani Sonnenfeld was the offensive hero for the home team. She went 4 for 4 while driving in four runs, including the game-winner in the bottom of the eighth. Catcher Megan Ranger went 2 for 4 and had an RBI. Maggie Johnson used two sacrifice bunts to advance Steph Saxe in the first and eight innings. Saxe scored in both cases.

North Branch took a 2-0 lead in the first. Irondale came back to score three runs in the fourth to go up 3-2. The Vikings came right back, scoring two in the bottom of the fourth to retake the lead. The Knights tied it at 4-4 in the top of the fifth. The score remained tied until the the eighth.

North Branch got the winner when Sonnenfeld's fourth hit scored Saxe from second base. The winning run came on a close play at the plate when the Irondale catcher dropped the ball.

"Our defense played a solid game, committing only one error," coach Trunk commented. "The fourth inning could have been devastating for us. Megan Aho threw out a runner at home trying to score from second for the first out, after three runs had already scored. And, the inning ended on a double play with the batter lining out at second and Saxe doubling the runner off third."

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