After a mixed bag of a week which saw wins over Woodbury and Irondale, and tough losses to No. 1 Forest Lake and No. 3 Stillwater, the Park softball team dropped a 7-6 heartbreaker of a game to rival …
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After a mixed bag of a week which saw wins over Woodbury and Irondale, and tough losses to No. 1 Forest Lake and No. 3 Stillwater, the Park softball team dropped a 7-6 heartbreaker of a game to rival East Ridge Monday afternoon.
Park had runners on the corners with two out in the seventh, the tying run at third, but a close play at first went against the Wolfpack and East Ridge escaped with the victory.
Park slipped to 10-7 in the Suburban East Conference with one league game to go, and is currently in fourth place, and stands 11-7 on the season. East Ridge is one game back of Park at 9-6, good for fifth place, and is also 11-7 overall.
Park’s week last week was a definite mix of the good (13-0 over Irondale and 2-1 over Woodbury), the bad (a 7-1 loss at Stillwater) and the ugly (a 15-0 loss to top-ranked Forest Lake at Cottage Grove on Monday, May 5.
Monday’s game against the visiting Raptors was a wild one. East Ridge took a 4-1 lead after three innings, but Park rallied to tie the game at 4-all in the bottom of the fifth. The Raptors then seemingly salted the game away with three runs in the top of the sixth. But again, the Wolfpack rallied with two runs in the bottom of the sixth to close to within a run.
That set the stage for a wild seventh. East Ridge’s first two batters and three of the first four all singled in the seventh but that was as far as the Raptors got as relief pitcher Ava Youngquist struck out two of the next three batters she faced, and Park turned a nifty right field to shortstop out on defense to get out of the inning.
Park’s first two batters in the seventh made outs, but Nora Thurmes and Lauren Osland both singled to give the Wolfpack life. Addie Corkish then hit a ball toward third and one of the Raptors threw to first in a close play that was ruled an out and the ballgame. It was a tough way to go down for the Wolfpack who battled back the entire game only to suffer a very disappointing ending.
“I thought we beat it out, but obviously in high school there’s no replay,” said Park head coach Tony Young. “So, with two outs we were off on the crack of the bat and Corkish is fast on the run. But we can’t allow it to come down to close plays like that. We left too may runners on in scoring position with two outs. We’ve got to get better at it.
“The girls are worked hard,” Young added. “We’ve got to find a way, got to find a way.”
Mackenzie Darsow socked a two-run homer in the fifth to tie the game at 4-all. Then in the sixth, Park drove in two runs on a double to close the gap to 7-6.
Park hosts a good North St. Paul team (14-4) Wednesday in a non-conference contest.
