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The Viking softball team completed its conference season with three games last week. Monday, May 14, NB lost 7-3 at Irondale, Wednesday, May 16 the Vikings came back from five runs down to defeat Totino-Grace 10-5 and Thursday, May 17 they lost 10-3 to Spring Lake Park. The final two games were at home.

North Branch at Irondale

The Vikings struck first in this game. Maggie Johnson reached on an error, moved to third on Dani Sonnenfeld's base hit and scored when Steph Saxe singled.

That 1-0 lead held up through the first 3.5 innings. In their half of the fourth, the Knights used a single, a double and a Viking error to score two and take a 2-1 lead.

The Vikings took the lead back in the top of the fifth with a two-out rally. Megan Aho walked and Johnson singled to get things started. Aho scored the tying run when Megan Ranger singled. The Vikings' third and final run came when Sonnenfeld drove Johnson in with a single.

Irondale took the lead for good when they scored four in the bottom of the fifth. They closed out the scoring with one more in the sixth to make the final score Irondale 7, North Branch 3.

Saxe started on the hill for the Vikings and took the loss. She was relieved with one down in the fifth by Tiffany Good, who finished the game. Saxe gave up four runs (three earned) on four hits while striking out seven and walking four. Good gave up three runs on five hits and recorded one strike out.

Sonnenfeld was two for three with and RBI and Johnson was two for four to lead the Viking offense.

"We were making contact with the ball (just three strike outs), but we couldn't get the ball to fall in for hits," said Viking head coach Ron Trunk.

Totino-Grace at NB

The Vikings fell behind 5-0 before storming back for a 10-5 win over Totino Wednesday, May 16. The comeback was the biggest of the season for the Vikings.

The Eagles went up 5-0 on a run in the second and four more in the second. "Tiff (Tiffany Good) did a nice job of settling down after the first two innings as only three T-G runners reached base over the last five innings," said Trunk. "One of those was erased by a nice 5-4-3 double play in the fifth."

It was still 5-0 in the bottom of the fifth when singles by Megan Aho, Maggie Johnson, Megan Ranger, and Steph Saxe, a sacrifice fly by Kayla Obitz and a couple of Totino errors produced five for the Vikings. A key play came when Johnson scored on a very close play at the plate following an Eagle error. The play came with two outs and the score 5-2.

NB came back with five more in the sixth. Johnson, Ranger, Elise Holmstrom and Good all hit singles in the rally. Saxe and Obitz were patient at the plate, drawing bases loaded walks to force runs in.

"The five run fifth and sixth caught me by surprise," Trunk commented. "We had only been able to get four runners on base over the first four innings. Then, wham, we were up by five. This was probably our biggest win this year!"

Johnson was two for four with two RBI's and Ranger was two for four with an RBI. Obitz went one for two with two RBI's. Good pitched the complete gave for the win. She gave up two earned runs on six hits while walking two.

Spring Lake Park 10, NB 3

Thursday, May 17

The Vikings were never really in this loss to the second place Panthers. SLP scored nine runs in the first three innings on the Vikings' field.

The Vikings first run came in the the bottom of the first and in the third. In the first, Megan Aho led off with a single to center. She moved to second on Maggie Johnson's sacrifice bunt and scored on a single by Dani Sonnenfeld. In the third, Johnson led off with a double to left and scored on Sonnenfeld's single. Sonnenfeld reached third on Steph Saxe's single and scored on an SLP error.

Saxe worked six innings and took the loss for the Vikings. Saxe gave up 10 hits, struck out four, walked one and hit two batters.

"They are simply a better offensive team than us," Trunk said. "All 10 of their runs were earned. It's time for us to look forward to the post season."

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