Maple Lake Irish play Bulldogs close in loss

By Brenda Erdahl

Sports Editor

The Irish softball team played a couple of close games in their four losses last week. The young team is now 1-15 overall with playoffs just around the corner.

Holdingford 8, Maple Lake 4

The Maple Lake softball team hosted Holdingford on Tuesday, May 7. Holdingford was the first to put runs on the board. In the top of the second they scored three runs to make it a 3-0 game.

The Irish scored one run in each of the third, fourth, sixth and seventh innings to tally their four runs. Scoring those runs were Nora Goelz, Tessa Pribyl, Taylor Walhowe and Kass Fynboh. Ella Peterson, Danica Hageman, Taylor Walhowe, Grace Ronnenberg, Ashley Gaffaney, Alyxis Strzyzewski and Fynboh all had hits in the game.

Allie Walhowe pitched six innings, gave up 11 hits, eight runs and threw six strike outs.

Paynesville 7, Maple Lake 6

The Irish played the Bulldogs to a one-run loss, Thursday, May 9 in their closest game of the week.

Paynesville didn’t waste any time scoring two runs in the top of the first inning.

Maple Lake’s big inning came in the bottom of the third when they scored four runs. Nora Goelz singled on a fly ball to left field to score Fynboh and Strzyzewski, Peterson then scored on a Hageman groundout and finally Goelz scored on a wild pitch. The inning gave the Irish a 4-2 lead that held until the top of the third when Paynesville scored three runs to reclaim the lead. The Irish pushed two more runners across home plate in the bottom of the sixth to keep the game interesting. The Irish were up by one run going into the final inning. The Bulldogs scored two more runs in the top of the seventh and the Irish didn’t have an answer.

Goelz pitched seven innings for the Irish. She gave up 11 hits, seven runs and struck out three.

Paynesville 8, Maple Lake 2

The second game of the night against Paynesville was a little more lopsided. The Irish started out strong with two runs in the top of the second inning. Gaffaney scored the first run on a Strzyzewski ground out to second base, then Ronnenberg scored on a wild pitch. Those were the only two runs of the afternoon for the Irish as the Bulldogs shut down scoring for the visiting team. Paynesville scored at least one run in all the remaining innings.

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