Other than it being a less than balmy 43 degrees at game time, Park couldn’t have asked for a more perfect 2026 season opener.
The 14th ranked Wolfpack dispatched longtime bitter rival and 13th-ranked Stillwater with relative ease on a chilly Wednesday afternoon, winning 9-2.
“We’ve been waiting to play a game,” said head coach Tony Young. “We’ve had a handful of scrimmages, we’ve looked really, really well. Honestly today is the first day our jayvee and our varsity have been separated on different fields. Otherwise, we’ve been together. Things are really starting to come together here.
“Our composure,” Young said when asked what he was happiest with in the season opener. “We had some runners on base and we just handled things. In years past you would feel a sense of panic with this group. There’s no panic right now. It’s like there’s a calmness. There’s something special brewing with this group.”
Park broke the game opened with five runs in the second inning, then added three more in the third to take a commanding 8-1. And that was pretty much the ball game. Both teams scored another run in the fifth inning to wrap up the scoring.
“We had an amazing start for this game,” said senior catcher Alayna Adamez whose second inning homer run just started the Wolfpack to a quick 2-0 lead. “Definitely for sure hitting the ball but we played amazing defense toward the end of the game and throughout the whole entire game.
“We’re very supportive of our teammates,” Adamez added. “The energy is just amazing here. You probably could feel it on the dugout a little bit. But it’s amazing and we’re all happy and everybody is just bonding and we’re all like one big family here so the energy is growing and rising as we go.”
Allyson Grobner followed Adamez’s homer with a single, Kennedy Brink flied out, Izzy Tennis and Addie Corkish both doubled and just like that Park led 5-0.
The Wolfpack added three more runs in the third inning on two-out hits a single by Adamez, followed by doubles from Grobner and Kennedy and cruised the rest of the way to the convincing win.
Starting senior pitcher Ava Youngquist went the distance, allowing five hits, striking out five and setting the Ponies down in order in the first, second and seventh innings.
“My spin pitches were really working and my change up was on and I feel like if I threw a bad pitch I was right back there, next pitch” said Youngquist. “They (the defense) was really good. There were two new starters out there but did great.”
It was Park’s first win in the series since the first meeting of the 2019 season. The Ponies came in with 11 straight wins in the series. But the Wolfpack ended that Stillwater streak in a major way.
The Park game at White Bear Lake scheduled for Monday afternoon was rescheduled for Tuesday.
Park will host Benilde-St. Margaret’s Wednesday in a makeup game, plays Mounds View/Irondale (1-0) at Cottage Grove on Friday, then travels to Cretin-Derham Hall (0-0) on Monday.
In the first Star Tribune’s softball rankings of the season, Forest Lake is ranked third in the Minnesota Top 25, White Bear Lake is No. 5, Stillwater No. 13, Park No. 14 and Rosemount No. 19.
