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'Cats get the best of the Vikings for the second time in a week

Chisago Lakes 5, North Branch 1

The Wildcats scored three runs in the top of the fifth to break a 1-1 tie. The Vikings couldn't answer the Wildcat rally, and the Wildcats went on to a 5-1 last Friday, May 13 at North Branch.

In the top of the first, sparkplug Katelyn Ramberg led off the game with a walk. Delaney Doriott's bunt single moved Ramberg to second. Kasey Eichten's grounder to short forced Ramberg at third. Kayla Checkalski singled to load the bases. Danielle Tossey grounded to short, scoring Doriott with the game's first run. But Viking pitcher Kelci Lofboom limited the damage, inducing Wildcat Miranda Beimert to hit a grounder back to the mound to keep the score at 1-0.

The Vikings tied it up in the bottom of the third. Chelsey Emery-Snaza walked with one out and Emily Trunk walked with two outs. Freshman Mikayla Carlson singled to drive in Emery-Snaza. The runners moved up on a wild pitch. But Wildcat hurler Kasey Eichten stopped the rally right there, getting Viking Alley Carlson to pop out to end the Viking rally and leave the score tied at 1-1.

Ramberg started the Wildcats' rally in the third with a leadoff walk. Doriott and Eichten singled to load the bases. Checkalski hit a fly ball to short right center field. Viking second baseman Kallie Grote ran out and made a nice catch, but it was deep enough to score the speedy Ramberg from third to and give the Wildcats the lead. Tossey and Beimert each singled to drive in a run and the Wildcats led 4-1.

In the bottom of the fifth, Vikings Angel Buzay and Lofboom walked to put runners on first and second with one out. But a popout and a groundout ended the Viking threat. In the top of the seventh, Wildcat Tossey reached on an error. She moved to third on Beimert's single and scored on Claire Habel's grounder to second. Eichten set down the Vikings 1-2-3 in the bottom of the seventh, and the Wildcats had their second win over the Vikings this season.

Doriott, Eichten, Checkalski and Beimert had two hits apiece for the Wildcats. Wildcat pitcher Eichten raised her record to 8-6 on the season, allowing just two hits while striking out five and walking four.

"This is the first game in a while where we put it all together," said Wildcat co-head coach Herb Jangor. "We pitched well, played good defense and had some key hits. And if North Branch hadn't played some great defense, we would have had a few more runs. It was a well-played Friday night softball game between archrivals."

Jangor talked about a couple of the Wildcats' key players for the game. "Danielle Tossey's play has been really good this season. She was involved in three of our five runs today, scoring one and driving in two. She leads the team in batting. She does her job so quietly that I sometimes forget to mention her. And we had some nice baserunning by Katelyn Ramberg to get the go-ahead run. She was frustrated she hadn't scored on the previous play. She took advantage of her excellent speed to score on Checkalski's deep popup, sparking us to a big win."

The Vikings only managed to get two hits off of Eichten, one from Carlson and one from Kari Berggren.

"I thought Kelci really pitched a great game for us and we played solid defense behind her," North Branch Head Coach Ron Trunk said. "We ran into a pitcher who was really throwing well who made it tough on us at the plate. Definitely more positive things then negative to carry over into next week, though."

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