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Chisago Lakes 7, Zimmerman 0

In the season opener, Sophomore Anna Zaruba homered and pitched a four-hit shutout to lead the Wildcat softball team to a 7-0 win over the Zimmerman Thunder Tuesday, April 9 at Zimmerman High School.  The Wildcats slowly built a lead throughout the game, scoring in five of the seven innings.  Jess Dittel, Zaruba, Melana Larson and Courtney Preston had two hits apiece in the Wildcats’ 12-hit attack.  Larson drove in two runs and Zaruba, Dittel, and Jesa Leritz drove in one run each.  In addition to Zaruba’s sixth inning solo blast, the Wildcats’ other extra base hits were doubles by Zaruba, Larson, and Sam Johnson.  Zaruba struck out ten and walked none in the first of what will likely be many dominating pitching performances this season.

Chisago Lakes 13, Big Lake 3 (6 innings)

In front of the home crowd for the first time since the Wildcats’ great state tournament run last season, leadoff hitter Jess Dittel went four for four with a two-run homer and drove in four runs to lead the Wildcats to a 13-3 win over the Big Lake Hornets Friday, April 12 at Chisago Lakes High School.  The Wildcats led 8-3 going into the bottom of the sixth and scored five runs to go up 13-3 and end the game with two outs due to the ten-run rule.  Anna Zaruba allowed five hits, including a three-run home run to Kamrynn Tschritter in the fourth inning, struck out seven and walked none to pick up her second win of the season.

The Wildcats pounded out 16 hits as they crushed Hornet pitching.  Melana Larson and Melanie Anderson had three hits apiece, and Jesa Leritz had two.  The Wildcats had seven doubles, including two by Larson and one each from Meagan Anderson, Sam Johnson, Courtney Preston, Dittel, and Melanie Anderson.  Meagan Anderson also had two RBIs, and driving in one run apiece were Leritz, Zaruba, Larson, Johnson, and Melanie Anderson.

Chisago Lakes 1, Becker 0 (10 innings)

Jess Dittel singled with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the tenth inning to give the Wildcats a 1-0 win over the Becker Bulldogs Monday, April 15 at Chisago Lakes High School.  Anna Zaruba pitched all ten innings for the Wildcats.  She scattered six hits, struck out 15 and walked none to record her second shutout of the season.

The Bulldogs had multiple baserunners just twice in the game.  In the fourth, an error and a hit batter put runners on second and third with one out.  But a pair of groundouts ended that threat.  And in the eighth, Becker loaded the bases with one out on two hits, a sacrifice bunt and a fielder’s choice.  But Zaruba struck out the next batter, and a comebacker to her ended the inning, keeping the game scoreless.  The Wildcats only threatened once before their game winning rally in the tenth.  Dittel and Jesa Leritz led off the bottom of the sixth with singles and ended up on second and third, but the next three batters popped out to end the inning with no score.  In the bottom of the tenth, Morgan Kotval singled with one out.  Melanie Anderson followed with another single and Courtney Preston walked to load the bases before Dittel ended things with her run-scoring, game-winning single.

Softball Squiggles

The Wildcats will host the Princeton Tigers today at 5 p.m. at Chisago Lakes High School.  Next Monday, April 22 they will head up County Road 14 to North Branch to take on the Vikings at 5 p.m.  And on Tuesday, April 23 they will return home for a 5 p.m. rematch with the Zimmerman Thunder.

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