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Robbinsdale Cooper 10, North Branch 6

Although the Cooper Hawks held a sliver of a lead in the standings over the North Branch softball team, the Vikings felt they were the better squad. Cooper was 4-11-1 coming into the game, and North Branch sported a 4-12 record.

In the first game of the North Suburban Conference doubleheader, the score was in favor of the Hawks, but North Branch was the victim of a smoking-hot start by the opposition.

A glut of miscues was the Vikings' downfall in the second inning. Cooper did belt out three hits, but, two walks, a hit batter and two North Branch errors led to six runs by the opportunistic Hawks.

The Vikings got a good chunk of those runs back in the bottom half of the second inning. Chelsea Tollberg led off with a single to right. As the catcher, Tollberg had courtesy runner Angie Discher take the bag for her. Discher proceeded to manufacture her own run, stealing second base, and advancing to third on a wild pitch. Ashley King knocked Discher in with an RBI single.

After two fielders choice plays left Chelsey Emery-Snaza at first base and two outs, three straight hits by Emily Trunk, Tiffany Anderson and Kelci Lofboom plated three runs.

Again, the Vikings were their own worst enemy in the next inning. The Hawks were only able to land two hits in safely, but a sacrifice bunt, two walks and an error chalked up two more runs for the Hawks and allowed them to hold an 8-4 lead.

North Branch chipped away at the lead in the fourth inning. Emery-Snaza began with a single, and Trunk reached on an error. With two runners aboard, Anderson ripped a triple to the outfield to plate both Emery-Snaza and Trunk.

Down 8-6, the Vikings were unable to inch any closer. The Cooper pitcher made great pitches to keep the Viking hitters off-balance. The Hawks added two more runs in the fifth inning for the final tally of 10-6.

Lofboom started the first contest for the Vikings, going 2 2/3 innings. She allowed seven hits and five earned runs while walking four and plunking one. Trunk relieved her and pitched well, going 4 1/3 innings with three hits, no walks and two unearned runs. She struck out four Hawks in the last four innings.

The Vikings scored their six runs on nine hits, but their downfall in the game was six costly errors that directly led to five of the Hawks' 10 runs.

North Branch 12, Robbinsdale Cooper 2

With a new game to play, the Vikings wiped their memory of the loss to the Hawks and reset their focus.

Quickly, however, it looked like it might be a repeat of the opening game. The Cooper lead-off batter stroked a hit, then stole second base. She came around to score on a sacrifice hit and a sacrifice fly. The Vikings defense quelled the damage there, though, and their prolific offense went to work in the bottom half of the first.

Anderson led off the Viking attack with a single. Lofboom followed by putting a ball into play that the Cooper defense bobbled. The error allowed Anderson and Lofboom to advance a base and left them at second and third with shortstop Kayle Merschdorf at the plate. Merschdorf came through with the big hit, a single back up the middle, that scored Anderson and Lofboom.

The Vikings extended their lead in the second when Alley Carlson was hit by a pitch with the bases the loaded. The tough RBI gave the Vikings a 3-1 lead.

Cooper drew near after they put together another impressive array of base running. After a walk, the Cooper base runner stole second and third, and came in on a North Branch error.

The errors finally started adding up for the Hawks. In the third inning, a Quiana Quam hit, along with three straight Cooper errors plated two more runs for the Vikings.

Sporting a 5-2 lead, the Vikings started bashing the ball a little harder in the fifth inning. The inning started with a Quam single, and evolved into what looked like batting practice for the Vikings. Hits by Anderson, Lofboom, Merschdorf, a walk by Tollberg, a sacrifice bunt by Emery-Snaza, a Cooper error and another hit by Quam equaled seven big runs for the Vikings as they hammered the Hawks into submission with the 10-run mercy rule.

Trunk pitched all five innings for the Vikings, striking out three and walking two. The victory was her first career varsity win for the Vikings.

The win earned the Vikings one long trip to Grand Rapids on Wednesday, May 20. The Vikings enter the section as the 10th seed, and Grand Rapids is the seventh seed. If the Vikings come out victorious, they'll face off against the St. Francis Saints on Saturday, May 23 at 11 a.m.

The Saints barely edged the Vikings in the first half of their doubl-header at the beginning of the year, winning 5-2. But, in the second game, the Saints won 10-0 over the Vikings.

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