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Chisago Lakes  3, Cambridge-Isanti 1

Melana Larson’s two-out, two-run double in the bottom of the third broke a 1-1 tie and the Wildcats went on to beat the Cambridge-Isanti Bluejackets 3-1 Wednesday, May 8 at Chisago Lakes.   Makenna Thorsen started and went the first three innings.  She allowed one earned run on four hits, walked three and struck out one.  Anna Zaruba picked up the win in four innings of relief.  She allowed no runs on three hits, walked none, and struck out seven.

Chloe Ruza and Courtney Preston opened the third with back-to-back singles.  After Jess Dittel-Hoefler flew out, Jesa Leritz singled to load the bases.  Zaruba hit a sacrifice fly to left to tie the game at 1-1.  Larson followed with a two-run double to give the Wildcats a 3-1 lead.

Chisago Lakes  5, Princeton 1

Anna Zaruba homered for the second time this season and drove in three runs to lead the Wildcats to a 5-1 win over the Princeton Tigers on Thursday, May 9 at Chisago Lakes High School.  Zaruba also pitched all seven innings.  She allowed one earned run on six hits and struck out eleven.  But she uncharacteristically walked four batters – tripling her season walk total from two to six.

Zaruba homered with one on and one out in the bottom of the first inning to put the Wildcats up 2-0.  A run-scoring double for the Tigers in the top of the third cut the Wildcat lead to 2-1.  Morgan Kotval tripled to lead off the bottom of the fourth and scored on a single by Melanie Anderson.  In the fifth, Jesa Leritz singled with one out, stole second and scored on a single by Zaruba to make it 4-1.  And in the sixth inning, Abby Sufka drove in Melanie Anderson with the Wildcats’ fifth and final run.

Cloquet 7, Chisago Lakes 6 (10 innings)

The Wildcats played two games at Princeton’s Mark Park on Friday, May 10.  Against the Cloquet Lumberjacks, the Wildcats scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to tie the game a 6-6 and send it into extra innings.  But the Lumberjacks scored an unearned run in the top of the tenth inning and held off the Wildcats in the bottom of the inning to escape with a 7-6 win.

Melana Larson started things off with a blast – a three-run blast, to be specific – in the bottom of the first inning to give the Wildcats a 3-0 lead.   In the top of the second, Cloquet took advantage of four hits, a walk and two critical errors to score five runs and took a 5-3 lead.  In the fifth, Jess Dittel-Hoefler walked, stole second and scored on a single by Anna Zaruba to cut the Cloquet lead to 5-4.  In the top of the seventh, the Lumberjacks added a run on a walk, a passed ball, an error, and a sacrifice fly to make it 6-4.  Morgan Kotval singled to lead off the bottom of the inning.  One out later, Jesa Leritz reached on an error, sending Preston to third.  Leritz stole second, and both runners scored on Zaruba’s groundout to tie the game at 6-6.

In the top of the 10th, the first Cloquet batter reached on an error and stole second.  Two outs later, she scored on a single to give the Lumberjacks a 7-6 lead. Kotval singled to lead off the bottom of the tenth, but after two groundouts and Kotval on second with the tying run, Chloe Ruza struck out to end the game.

Makenna Thorsen started for the Wildcats.  In 7 1/3 innings, she allowed six runs – only one of which was earned – on six hits, walked two and struck out six.  Anna Zaruba took the loss in 2 2/3 innings of relief.  She allowed an unearned run on two hits, walked one and struck out three.

Chisago Lakes 5, Princeton 4 (9 innings)

In their other game at Mark Park on Friday, the Wildcats player the Princeton Tigers for the second time in two days and played in their second extra inning game of the day.  Jess Dittel-Hoefler drove in the go-ahead run with a double in the top of the ninth and the Wildcats held on for a 5-4 win.  Anna Zaruba started and went three innings.  She allowed three runs (one earned) on six hits, walked none, and struck out four.  Makenna Thorsen picked up the win in six innings of relief.  She allowed one unearned run on five hits, walked one and struck out six.

In the top of the second, Morgan Kotval reached on an error, scoring Melana Larson to tie the game at 1-1.  The Tigers scored two runs in the bottom of the inning to go up 3-1.   Larson drove in a run on a sacrifice fly in the third to cut the Princeton lead to 3-2.  In the top of the fourth, Meagan Anderson walked with one out and scored on Abby Sufka’s triple to tie the game at 3-3.  The Tigers answered in the bottom of the fourth with a run-scoring, two-out double to go up 4-3.  Larson hit a solo home run with two outs in the top of the fifth – her second homer in two games – to tie the game at 4-4.   Sufka doubled to lead off the top of the ninth.  Courthey Preston sacrificed her to third, and Dittel-Hoefler doubled in the winning run, giving the Wildcats a win on a long day of softball.

Softball Squiggles

In their final game of the regular season, the Wildcats (14-3) will host the Rock Ridge Wolverines today at 5 p.m. at Chisago Lakes High School.  Section 7AAA playoffs will begin next Tuesday, May 21, with the Wildcats likely being the number one seed and getting a home game.  Assuming the Wildcats win that game, we will have a preview for the rest of the section tournament in next week’s Press, as the Wildcats play for their second straight state tournament appearance.

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