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On their way to a likely second appearance at the state softball tournament, a late-season injury to junior pitcher Anna Zaruba continued to affect her through the Section 7AAA playoffs, making the road to state much tougher.  The Wildcats opened with a 2-0 win over Hermantown, but a 2-1 loss to North Branch and an 8-5 loss to Grand Rapids ended their season.

Chisago Lakes 2, Hermantown 0

Anna Zaruba certainly made her presence felt immediately in the opening round of the Section 7AAA tournament.  In her first at bat, with two outs in the bottom of the first inning, she blasted a home run over the center field fence to give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead over the Hermantown Hawks. The Wildcats went on to beat Hermantown 2-0, setting up a winner’s bracket showdown with the North Branch Vikings.  Makenna Thorsen was masterful on the mound for the Wildcats.  In seven innings, she allowed no runs on just four hits, walked one and struck out nine.  The game took place on Wednesday, May 22 at Chisago Lakes High School.

The Wildcats added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth inning.  Morgan Kotval and Thorsen had back-to-back singles with two outs.  On a 3-2 count, Mel Anderson popped a single over the shortstop’s head  A hustling Kotval motored around third and slid into home ahead of the throw to give the Wildcats a 2-0 lead.

Thoren struck out the first batter in the top of the seventh.  An infield hit and a walk put runners on first and second.  The next batter hit a grounder to second.  Dittel-Hoefler flipped the ball to Preston for the second out, but the relay to first was too late to get the batter.  The final batter of the game hit a foul popup near third base, and third baseman Melana Larson squeezed it for the third out and a Wildcat win.

Grand Rapids 8, Chisago Lakes 5

In a Section 7AAA elimination game, the Grand Rapids Thunderhawks broke open a close game with a seven-run outburst in the fourth and fifth innings and went on to beat the Wildcats 8-5 on Thursday, May 23 at Braun Park, ending the Wildcats’ season.

Jess Dittel-Hoefler and Jesa Leritz had back-to-back singles to lead off the top of the first inning.  One out later, Melana Larson doubled, but Dittel-Hoefler was thrown out at the plate attempting to score.  Leritz scored on a passed ball, and the Wildcats led 1-0.  The Thunderhawks scored an unearned run in the top of the third to tie the game at 1-1.  The Wildcats answered  with a run in the third when Dittel-Hoefler walked, went to second on a groundout by Leritz and scored on a double by Anna Zaruba to make it 2-1.

But then the floodgates opened for Grand Rapids.  In the fourth, two singles, a walk, a double, a groundout and another single led to four runs, making the score 5-2.  They added three more runs in the fifth on four straight singles with one out, and, after a popout, one more single to make it 8-2.  The Wildcats got run-scoring singles from Melana Larson and Makenna Thorsen in the bottom of the fifth to cut the lead to 8-4.  Dittel-Hoefler doubled to lead off the bottom of the sixth and scored on a one-out single by Zaruba, but Larson grounded out and Sam Johnson flew out to center to end the rally.  Mel Anderson singed with two outs and nobody on in the bottom of the seventh, but Courtney Preston flew out to left to end the game and the season.

“We were hoping Anna would be able to throw the second game on Thursday,” said Wildcat head coach Brenda Carlson.  “But she just couldn’t go.  Against North Branch, we were able to get her out there for the last two innings, and she struck out four of the six batters she faced.  Makenna was lights out as a ninth-grader this season.  I am glad she will be out there behind Anna next year.  We put her in a leadership role as a ninth-grader and she was up for anything.  We had two really good pitchers on JV this year, so we’ll have even more pitching depth next year.  As long as we keep everyone healthy, it should be a great season.  Things happen for a reason, and all of our trials and tribulations will make us stronger next year.”

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