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Chisago Lakes 5, Robbinsdale Cooper 0

Rachel Nelson did it all for the Wildcats in the season opener, striking out 12 and going two for three with two RBIs to lead the Wildcats to a 5-0 shutout over the Robbinsdale Cooper Hawks at New Hope Elementary Tuesday, April 15.

Amanda Houle walked to lead off the game for the Wildcats, followed by a Mallory Schneider single. Both runners moved up on a groundout and scored on a two-out error to give the Wildcats an early 2-0 lead. With one out in the third inning, Lisa Schommer reached on an error and Mackenzie Turk walked. Tracy Schneider's sacrifice bunt moved the two runners to second and third. Turk scored on Ashley Oehme's single. After Oehme stole second, Nelson drove in two runs with a single to right center to make the score 5-0. It was all the scoring the Wildcats needed, as Nelson dominated the Hawks for her first shutout of the season.

"That's the first time Rachel has batted in a varsity game," said Wildcat coach Herb Jangor. "Fans were actually taking pictures of her in the batter's box. We did what we had to do to be successful. We got a couple of timely hits, used our speed and had good pitching and good defense."

Spring Lake Park 5, Chisago Lakes 2

A three-run homer by Spring Lake Park in the fourth inning broke open a close game, and the Wildcats lost their home opener 5-2 to the Spring Lake Park Panthers Wednesday, April 16.

Wildcat errors allowed the Panthers to take a 2-0 lead in the second inning. In the third, a mental mistake by the Wildcats allowed one of the Panther's heavy hitters to come up to the plate with two on and two outs. She delivered the home run that gave the Panthers a big lead. The Wildcats scored unearned runs in the sixth and seventh innings to make the final score 5-2 in favor of the Panthers.

The top two batters in the order, Amanda Houle and Mallory Schneider went a combined three for eight for the game. "Houle and Schneider did a good job setting the table," said Jangor. "But the people who were supposed to clear the table didn't come through. Rachel pitched well enough to keep us in the game. But you can't beat someone as good as Spring Lake Park when you make four errors. This game was a challenge to our character early in the season. Late in the game, we passed that test. We went down battling when we started to play the way we needed to play."

C.L. 8, North Branch 4

The Wildcats jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first inning against the Vikings. The Vikings scored a couple of runs in the third inning to close the gap, but the Wildcats added three runs in the fifth and sixth innings to put the game out of reach on their way to an 8-4 win Thursday, April 17 at Chisago Lakes.

Amanda Houle and Mallory Schneider once again set the tone early for the Wildcats, with a walk and a hit, respectively, to lead off the first inning. Tracy Schneider and Ashley Oehme each had a big hit in the inning, and Ariel Novak and Angie Gauvin each stole a base as five of the first six Wildcat batters scored. Then the Wildcat bats went silent for a few innings, and the Vikings closed the gap to 5-2. But the Wildcats took advantage of an error, a double by Lisa Schommer, a wild pitch and a timely single by Ashley Oehme to add two runs in the fifth. In the sixth, Shannon Monson singled, stole second and third and scored on Houle's single to stretch the Wildcat lead to 8-2. The Vikings scored two runs in the seventh, but it was too little, too late as the Wildcats went on to an 8-4 win.

"Our team has to recognize you've got to play seven innings," said Jangor. "After the first inning, out mindset slipped a little. After the Vikings closed it to 5-2 in the middle of the game, we got re-focused and put the game out of reach in the last two innings. And give Rachel some credit. She wasn't real sharp, pitching her third game in three days. But she battled hard and pitched well enough to win when she didn't have her best stuff.

"We have a nice mix of speed and kids who can put the bat on the ball," said Jangor. It's early in the year, but it's always nice to beat your rival. I think the Vikings are definitely going to surprise some teams this year."

Ashley Oehme led the Wildcats with two hits for the game.

Hermantown 14, C.L. 1

Nothing went right for the Wildcats against Hermantown. They committed eight errors and gave up nine runs, including five unearned runs, in the second inning. The Hawks went on to beat the Wildcats 14-1 Saturday, April 19 at Chisago Lakes. Angie Gauvin scored the only run for the Wildcats.

"They had the bases loaded in the second and we were only down 2-0 at the time," said Jangor. "If we had played smart and gotten out of the inning, we still had a chance. But we committed three errors in the inning and they ended up with a 9-0 lead. It's very difficult to come back from nine runs down against a team as good as Hermantown. A blowout loss or a blowout win are never as bad or good as they appear, but a game like this shows that we still have a lot of work to do if we want to be able to compete to get to state. We've got a crucial game against St. Francis coming up next week and we've got to find a way to come back and play solid ball again. We need to get the middle of our lineup to start hitting the ball."

The Wildcats (2-2 overall, 2-1 conference) were scheduled to play St. Francis at home Monday, April 21, and then head to Totino Grace to take on the Eagles Tuesday, April 22. Tonight, Thursday, April 24, they'll return home to take on St. Louis Park at 4:30 p.m. They'll host Benilde-St. Margaret's next Monday, April 28 at 4:30 p.m., making it the Wildcats' sixth home game out of their first eight games so far this season.

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