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North Branch 13, Columbia Heights 0

Freshman Emily Trunk wanted to put her name in the North Branch history books as the youngest girl to throw a no-hitter, but she had to settle for a mere one-hitter in the Vikings 13-0 win over Columbia Heights.

Visiting Heights, the Vikings were up in the top of the first inning, and they really boosted Trunk's confidence before she even had to take the mound.

Behind four hits, two walks and two Columbia Heights errors, the Vikings scored nine runs in the opening inning. The big hit in the inning was a bases loaded triple by senior Tiffany Anderson.

The Vikings stretched their lead to double digits in the second inning when Ashley King led off with a walk, advanced to third on a Chelsey Emery-Snaza single, and scored on a wild pitch.

The last three runs for the Vikings came in the third inning. Anderson led off with a double and Trunk walked behind her. Both girls advanced on a Heights' wild pitch. Anderson came home on a groundout by Alley Carlson.

Following that, King drew another walk, Chelsea Tollberg knocked both her and Trunk in with a bases-clearing double.

Both Trunk and Anderson ended the game two-for-three with a double and a triple. Anderson scored three runs and had three RBIs while Trunk scored twice and had two RBIs.

Carlson, Kayla Merschdorf, Jeni Huth and Kelci Lofboom also came around to score for the Vikings in the domination.

"It was nice to see us collect some hits and hit with power throughout our lineup," Head Coach Ron Trunk said. "Every starter either scored a run or knocked in a run."

The real story, though, was Trunk's pitching performance. Columbia Heights was simply overwhelmed by her stuff on the afternoon, as she struck out 11 Hylanders. Trunk kept her control also, only walking one and giving up a single hit.

The performance was especially impressive as Trunk is only a freshman for the Vikings.

Totino-Grace 10, North Branch 0

After crushing the Hylanders and nearly no-hitting them, the Vikings got a taste of their own medicine a few days later against a stacked Totino-Grace squad.

The Eagles opening the scoring in the first inning with a three-run homerun after two damaging walks.

Totino didn't stop there, adding five more runs in the fourth inning on four hits and a walk. The big blow came on a bases loaded double that emptied all of the Eagles off the bases.

Kelci Lofboom took the hard-luck loss for the Vikings, going four innings while giving up eight runs on five hits. "I really felt Kelci pitched better than the score indicated," Trunk said. "She was hurt by the two big hits and all three of her walks came in front of those two hits."

On offense, the Vikings were completely shut down as Totino's Erica Meyer threw a perfect game, not allowing a single Viking to reach base. "Offensively, we needed to be more aggressive early in the count," Trunk explained. "We had a lot of batters fall behind early in the count and then go down chasing pitches out of the zone."

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