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The North Branch softball season came to end Saturday, May 26 with a 9-3 loss to Cloquet. The Section 7AAA game was played at Wheeler Fields in Duluth.

Cloquet jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning and added two more in the second and third. Trailing 7-0, the Vikings tried to mount a comeback in the fourth. Megan Ranger doubled and moved to third on a groundout. Ranger scored the Vikings' first run on Steph Saxe's groundout.

North Branch closed the gap to 7-3 in the sixth. Ranger, on base with a single to center, scored when Saxe hit her third home run of the season. The blast cleared the fence in left center field. But, Cloquet scored the game's last two runs to make the final score 9-3.

"We never really got our offense going today with just four hits," said North Branch head coach Ron Trunk.

Ranger went 3 for 3 with two runs scored and Saxe hit a home run and drove in all three Viking runs to lead the offense. Tiffany Good went the distance on the mound. She gave up seven earned runs on 10 hits, struck out three and walked two.

"It's always sad to see your season end," Trunk said. "But, it is especially sad to lose our four seniors, Megan Ranger, Tiffany Good, Maggie Johnson and Dani Sonnenfeld. These four players combined for 14 years of varsity experience and will be greatly missed. We also lose senior statistician/manager Allison Huth who has been with us for three years."

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