Lady Vikings Place 13th And 3rd At Class D State Softball

The Lady Vikings 13/14 and 16/18 softball team had a great showing at the Class D Softball tournament last weekend at Hastings, NE.  The 16/18 team won 2 games and lost 2 games during the tournament giving them 13th place.  The 13/14 team won 3 games and lost 2 games and came home with 3rd place.

The teams started playing on Friday morning.  The 13/14 team played first at 9am and took on the Gothenburg Classic Angels.  Sienna West pitched for the Lady Vikings for this game. The Lady Vikings were guest so had to bat first and came out strong.  The Lady Vikings would go on to win this game 20 to 5. Sienna would have 3 strikeouts the whole game. Addi Sporleder got a triple during the 4th inning which added to the runs.  Next the 13/14 Lady Vikings would take on Logan View with Sienna as the pitcher again.  This game proved to be an exciting one which would not be the only heart stopping game of the weekend.  During the first 5 innings the Lady Vikings were only allowed 4 runs including a home run by Abby Kaiser off a bunt.  At the bottom of the 6th inning, Logan View was up to bat with just under 5 minutes left of the game.  The Lady Vikings had to get the 3 outs so they could bat again because they were down by 1 point.  The Lady Vikings ended that inning with 28 seconds of play time. This allowed the Lady Vikings to have another chance at bat to score some runs.  The Lady Vikings came out on fire at the top of the 7th inning.  Peyton Privett would start off the scoring rally by getting on base with a single along with Addi S.  Taylor Alexander was up next and would hit a double brining Addi and Peyton home. Blair Wakeley was up next and would hit a grounder but would be out on 1st base but allowed Taylor to move to 3rd base.  Hadley Vanness and Holly Johnson would load the bases on walks.  What happened next is what every baseball and softball player dream for in the playing career.  Madison Abbenhaus was up to bat and on the first pitch hits it deep into center field to the fence.  She cleared the bases and made it home herself for a grand slam home run! Abby Kaiser made it on base with a single and was able to steal her way home before the 3rd out.  The Lady Vikings would score 7 runs that inning giving them the lead.  The Lady Vikings defense would only allow 2 runs in before shutting Logan View down and taking the win.  Sienna would have 4 strikeouts in this game. The 13/14 Lady Vikings would go on to meet Verdigre in the quarter finals the next afternoon.  They have lost to Verdigre in every game during their regular season league match up, but this time the Lady Vikings were on a roll and would not let the previous losses get in their heads.  They came into the game with an attitude that they would not be beaten. It proved to be another exciting game. Sienna would pitch again this game. She would earn 4 strikeouts. The Lady Vikings were up by 2 points going into the top of the 6th inning.  They were home team this game so would get to bat last.  The Lady Vikings would allow 2 runs home by Verdigre putting them down by 1 going into the bottom of the 6th inning.  The deficit would not last long though as the Lady Vikings would score 6 points in the bottom of the 6th, giving them the lead of 9 to 4.  The Lady Vikings just had to hold the Verdigre Stingers in the top of the 7th inning as time expired during the top of the 7th inning.  The Lady Vikings did just that with 3 batters up and 3 batters out!  What a sweet victory for the Lady Vikings. This would be their only game on Saturday.  The next game was Sunday at 11am. The heat moved in and Sunday started very warm. The Lady Vikings would take on Yutan.  Sienna West would pitch for this game again. She earned 4 strikeouts during this game. The Lady Vikings played hard but the weekend of play was starting to show on the girls especially since the heat was intense on Sunday and the Lady Vikings had no subs on their bench.  During the coin toss the girls determined they were guest, so they had to bat first. The Lady Vikings started slow and could not get anyone home that first time at bat. The Lady Vikings would come alive during the 4th inning and continue through the end of the game. They accumulated 10 runs.  They were up by 4 points and just had to hold Yutan, who was at the top of their batting order. The Lady Vikings just couldn’t get the outs before Yutan scored 5 points to end the game due to time limit. This would be the Lady Vikings 1st loss.  They had to turn around and play Aftershock from Omaha.  The heat was still intense and was wearing on the girls. Madison would pitch for a majority of the game for the Lady Vikings before Sienna would come in to pitch the last 2 innings.  The Lady Vikings would again draw guest in this game also. This meant that they bat first. The girls started strong and the score would be very close for a majority of the game. Addi would hit a double to help advance runners.  The Lady Vikings would get ahead by 1 in the 3rd inning.  They would hold that lead until the 4th inning when Aftershock would score 4 runs.  The Lady Vikings tried hard when time was winding down to get their 3 outs to start another inning but time was not on their side this game and the Lady Vikings could only get 2 outs before time expired.  The Lady Vikings finished 3rd in the tournament.  The coaches were very proud of the girl’s efforts along with the parents of the players.  The determination and fight in the team was very evident in every game. They never gave up and continued to fight even when they were down. 

The 16/18 team started their tournament play on Friday at 1:30 pm when they took on Syracuse.  Charlie would start the game pitching for the Lady Vikings. She pitched well and Syracuse was able to hit her pitches and her defense was able to take care of the outs.  The Lady Vikings were able to earn a pretty controversial 3rd out.  The runner for Syracuse would run from 2nd base rounding 3rd base and then steal home.  She did not touch 3rd base so the Lady Vikings caught that mistake and threw the ball to 3rd base for the out.  During the 3rd inning Jaide Kaiser would come in as pitcher.  She would earn 1 strikeout and let her defense earn the rest of the outs.  The Lady Vikings defense was tough and only allowed 6 runs during the 6 innings of play.  Their offense was just as strong too. During the 6th inning, the Lady Vikings were down by 1 point until they went on a batting rally.  They would score 8 runs before being shut down, including a double by Liz Johnson and Charlie Price.  Morgan Kleinschmit would also hit a triple. The Lady Vikings would win the game 14 to 6. This would have them facing Meridan later in the afternoon.  Charlie Price would start again as the Lady Viking’s pitcher. She earned 1 strikeout before Jaide Kaiser would come in during the 3rd inning as pitcher.  Jaide earned 2 strikeouts as pitcher.  The Lady Vikings played tough defense but just could not get a scoring rally going to overcome Meridan despite a home run by Morgan.  They did fall in a devastating loss of 7 to 9. This would put the Lady Vikings in the loser’s bracket and set to play Saturday morning against Blue Springs Lightning.  The Lady Vikings were ready to take the win. Charlie Price would start as pitcher for the Lady Vikings again and earn 1 strikeout. Jaide Kaiser would come in as pitcher as the beginning of the 3rd inning and tally 4 strikeouts.  The Lady Vikings do like to wait on their scoring rally until late into the game.  During the 4th inning the Lady Vikings scored 6 runs to take the lead by 1 point.  Taylor Privett, Elisa Herrera and Morgan Kleinschmit would hit doubles to help score runs by Liz Johnson, Madisyn Hall, Charlie Price and Jaide Kaiser.  The Lady Vikings would win with a score of 9 to 8. This would have them meeting Palmyra Panthers who would end up battling their way through the losers’ bracket to take the state title.  Charlie Price would again start as pitcher and earn 1 strikeout before Jaide Kaiser would come in to pitch during the 2nd inning.  Jaide would earn2 more strikeouts during the game.  The Lady Viking defense could not hold the Panthers offense as they were able to score 10 runs during the 6 innings of play.  There were great plays though by Samantha Dela Cruz and Taylor Privett in center field, Morgan Kleinschmit as catcher, Hayle Krienert at 3rd base, Leah Bloomquist in left field and Liz Johnson as short stop but just not enough to hold off the aggressive base running of the Panthers.  The Lady Vikings lost 3 to 10. The girls fought hard all weekend and season. They took a team that had never played together and created a sisterhood of players who grew closer every game.  That sisterhood took them to state and helped them earn a 13th place finish in the state!  It was a great season and many tears were shed to see the season end. 

All in all it was a great showing of our small town summer program.  A program that was built over the past couple years to one that people notice and want to be a part of.  There are so many people that have worked countless hours to build this program to what it is today. Many of the coaches and league committee members have done so much to contribute to the program and the players.  If you see any of them on the street or on the store, please take a moment to thank them. Their roles are thankless ones that usually only get the negative feedback. Without them our program would not function as smoothly as it does.  The players have brought so much to our program too. Their countless hours of practice and time at games makes the program what it is also. These players balance their other activities along with family time to come play and practice. They respect their coaches and work hard for them during the season.  The committee could not have asked for a better season despite the obstacles the weather presented them when trying to get the fields ready in the spring. It was a good year and we are going to miss being at the ball fields. 

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