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The Wildcat softball team recently played seven games in a six-day period, going 4-3 and raising their season record to 8-7.

CONFERENCE GAMES

After losing to Benilde on Monday, April 30, the Wildcats reeled off three straight victories to raise their conference record to 6-3, good for a third place tie with Totino Grace.

Benilde-St. Margaret's 4, Chisago Lakes 0

The Wildcats managed just three hits and struck out 11 times against Benilde-St. Margaret's as they fell 4-0 at Benilde Monday, April 30.

Morgan Baumgard had two of the three Wildcat hits. The Wildcats managed just four baserunners for the entire game, and never more than one in an inning.

The Red Knights scored one run in the second inning and added three more in the third. The first two batters reached on errors, with one run scoring. The next batter homered to drive in two more runs and make the score 4-0. That was more than enough for the dominant Red Knight pitcher.

CL 17, St. Louis Park 1

Jenny Reed and Morgan Baumgard each hit their first home runs of the season, and Lisa Schommer had four hits and four RBI's as the Wildcat offense exploded against St. Louis Park, pounding the Orioles 17-1 Tuesday, May 1 at St. Louis Park.

Reed also had a triple and drove in a total of three runs, while Baumgard doubled and finished the game with two RBIs. Ashley Oehme was 3-for-3 with three stolen bases and one RBI. Rachel Nelson struck out five in three innings to pick up the victory, and Brittany Boettcher struck out two in the last two innings.

Chisago Lakes 9, Irondale 3

The Wildcats opened the game with four straight hits and four runs and never looked back, beating the Irondale Knights 9-3 Wednesday, May 2 at Chisago Lakes.

Mallory Schneider and Jenny Reed opened the game with back-to-back singles. Ariel Novak then doubled in Schneider, and Morgan Baumgard tripled to score Reed and Novak. Baumgard scored on Tracy Schneider's sacrifice fly to give the Wildcats a 4-0 lead.

Bailey Eichten drove in Baumgard with a sacrifice fly in the third inning to increase the Wildcat lead to 5-0. The Wildcats added three more runs in the sixth on three hits, and error and a sacrifice fly. Novak drove in Schneider with the Wildcats' final run. Rachel Nelson struck out seven and allowed just one earned run to raise her record to 6-4 on the season.

CL 13, Columbia Heights 7

The Wildcats out hit the Columbia Heights Hylanders 18-13. More importantly, they outscored them 13-7 to win a slugfest Friday, May 4 at Columbia Heights.

The Wildcats took a 3-0 lead in the first as Jenny Reed singled, Ariel Novak doubled her in and Morgan Baumgard tripled to score Novak. Tracy Schneider's single brought in the third run of the inning.

After the Hylanders tied it with three runs on three hits in the bottom of the inning, the Wildcats answered with six runs on eight straight hits, including Baumgard's solo home run, her second round tripper of the season. The Wildcats scored four more times in the fifth. Lisa Schommer double in two runs, and Bailey Eichten and Angie Gauvin each singled in a run.

BECKER TOURNAMENT

The Wildcats won the opening game of the tournament, beating St. Cloud Tech 5-2 to move into the championship bracket. But, the Wildcats lost the next two games to finish in fourth place. All of the tournament games took place on Saturday, May 4.

CL 5, St. Cloud Tech 2

Morgan "The Masher" Baumgard continued her torrid pace; hitting, her third home run of the week. The two-run shot to led the Wildcats to a 5-2 win in the opening round of the Becker Invitational Tournament.

St. Cloud Tech broke open a pitcher's duel by scoring two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning. The Wildcats came right back to tie it up in the top of the sixth. With one out, Ariel Novak singled and Baumgard walked. Tracy Schneider singled to right to score Novak, and Lisa Schommer followed with an RBI single of her own, scoring Baumgard to tie the score at 2-2.

Pitcher Rachel Nelson allowed a single in the bottom of the sixth inning, but struck out the other three batters to keep the score at 2-2.

In the top of the seventh, Jenny Reed led off with a double and stole third. Reed scored as Ariel Novak reached first on an infield error, giving the Wildcats a 3-2 lead. Baumgard then stepped up to the plate and launched the ball over the fence to give the Wildcats a 5-2 lead. Nelson shut down St. Cloud Tech in the bottom of the seventh to seal the Wildcat win.

St. Michael Albertville 7, Chisago Lakes 4

Lisa Schommer hit her first home run of the season, but the Wildcat defense struggled against St. Michael-Albertville. Four of the seven STMA runs were unearned as the Wildcats lost 7-4 in the semifinal matchup in the Becker Tournament.

The Knights scored two in the top of the first on a walk, two singles and a double. Schommer's solo blast over the right-center field wall in the bottom of the second cut the Knights lead to 2-1. But with one out in the top of the third, the first two Knight batters reached base on errors. The next batter homered to drive in three runs, all unearned, to give the Knights a 5-1 lead.

The Wildcats got back into the game with three runs of their own in the bottom of the third. With one out, Mallory Schneider reached first on an error and Jenny Reed singled. After the next batter popped out, Morgan Baumgard doubled to score Mallory Schneider. Tracy Schneider then followed with a two-run double to pull the Wildcat to within 5-4.

But the Knights stretched their lead back to three in the top of the fourth. With two outs and nobody on base, Rachel Nelson struck out the next batter. But the ball got away and the runner came all the way around to score on a throwing error. The next batter hit a solo home run to make the score 7-4. The Wildcats loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the fourth on two walks and a single, but a groundout ended the inning with the Wildcats still trailing by three. The Wildcats managed just two baserunners the rest of the game in the 7-4 loss.

Becker 12, Chisago Lakes 8

Leading 7-3 going into the bottom of the sixth of the Becker tournament's third-place game, Becker broke the game open with five more runs to take a 12-3 lead. The Wildcats made it interesting with five runs of their own in the top of the seventh, but it wasn't enough as they lost 12-8 to finish in fourth place at the tournament.

Trailing 5-0 after three innings, Tracy Schneider drove in one run and another on scored on an error to pull the Wildcats to within three. Schneider drove in another run in the sixth, but by then Becker had added two more of their own to go up 7-3. Becker then turned six singles and one Wildcat error onto five runs in the bottom of the sixth.

In the top of the seventh, the first four Wildcat hitters walked, forcing in one run and leaving the bases loaded with no outs. But a Wildcat runner strayed too far off second and was picked off by the catcher. Ariel Novak's double and three more walks plated four more for the Wildcats, leaving two runners on with just one out. But a foul pop-up and a strikeout ended the game, making the final score Becker 12, Chisago Lakes 8.

"Seven games in six days can wear a team out," said Wildcat head coach Herb Jangor. "But we went 4-3 and moved up in the conference standings by winning three out of four conference games. Our pitcher, Rachel Nelson, is only a freshman, and it was a lot to ask of her to pitch all seven games. She did pretty well, though she did get tired at the end of a few of them. Brittany Boettcher was able to give us some innings on the mound, which helped.

"Our defense played pretty well overall. The only bad game they had was the one against St. Michael. And we had several hitters step up and do well. Jenny Reed and Lisa Schommer each hit their first home runs of the season. Those two, along with Mallory Schneider, Tracy Schneider and Ariel Novak had a lot to do with our hitting success for the week.

"But," continued Jangor, "our star was Morgan Baumgard. "She played well for us as a sophomore and took last year off, and this year she's coming back with a vengeance. She's been hitting well all year and providing the senior leadership we need. This week everything came together for her." In seven games, Baumgard went 14 for 19, a batting average of .737. Among her 14 hits were 3 doubles, 3 triples and 3 home runs, giving her a slugging average of 1.684. She also drove in 11 runs.

The Wildcats(8-7 overall, 6-3 conference) get a bit of a breather this week, with just three games on deck. They were scheduled to travel to Fridley to face the Tigers on Monday, May 7, then return home to play St. Louis Park on Wednesday, May 9. They'll finish out the week with a home game tomorrow, Friday, May 11 as they host Benilde-St. Margaret's at 4:30.

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