Park softball goes 5-0 on the week.

By John Molene
Posted 5/11/23

The seventh-ranked team in the Metro, the Park Wolfpack, enjoyed a perfect week by posting a 5-0 record heading into the last two weeks of the season. Park improved to 11-2 on the season, including …

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Park softball goes 5-0 on the week.

Posted

The seventh-ranked team in the Metro, the Park Wolfpack, enjoyed a perfect week by posting a 5-0 record heading into the last two weeks of the season. Park improved to 11-2 on the season, including 10-1 in the Suburban East Conference and is ranked No. 7 in the Star-Tribune’s Metro Top 10 as of May 2.

Stillwater is ranked No. 2, Forest Lake No. 4 and Park No. 7 in this week’s Star Triune Metro Top 10.

The Wolfpack have another busy week as they head to White Bear Lake on Monday, host Roseville Tuesday, before hosting another top foe in Stillwater on Wednesday afternoon.

Park 5, Cretin-Derham Hall 4

Friday, May 5, brought uncertainty as thunderstorms loomed in the air throughout the Wolfpack’s final game of the week against Cretin Derham Hall, who happens to be just a few games behind Park in the SEC standings.

Park struck first when Bryleigh Dana plated Emma Ambroz with a line drive single to right field, to put the Wolfpack up 1-0.

Stella Fritsche started on the mound for the home Wolfpack, and although she got out of a few jams throughout the early parts of the game, the top of the third inning would be the last Fritsche would see on the mound, as the visiting Raiders plated four runs to go up by a score of 4-1. 

Mackenzie Darsow came in to relieve Fritsche in the circle and the youngster didn’t disappoint, as she kept the Cretin hitters at bay the final four plus frames.

Park rallied for three runs in the bottom of the third to tie the score at four apiece, then took the lead for good in the bottom of the sixth inning as Grace Conaway led off with a double, followed by a Skyler Croker bunt and yet another bunt by Briana Lee to plate Conaway.

Park 2, White Bear Lake 0 

The Park softball team faced a formidable foe in White Bear Lake and the state’s top pitcher, Chloe Barber. Park has battled Barber many times throughout the years but has gotten snubbed each time.   Tuesday would be a different story as the Wolfpack hitters found ways to disrupt Barber and the Bears in order to push through yet another victory. 

Barber, a Wichita State commit, surrendered only two runs via five hits from the Park hitters, but it was the last two that mattered the most. Noelle Krumrie led off the bottom of the eighth with the scored knotted at 0-0, to line a base hit to left field. After Edie Walton struck out, Bryleigh Dana worked a seven pitch at bat until Barber put one where Dana couldn’t resist, as she drove the 2-2 pitch over the left field fence for a two-run walk-off home run. Not to be outdone by Barber, Park’s starting pitcher Stella Fritsche, struck out twelve Bear batters while not allowing a single run to cross the plate to earn her eighth win of the season.

 Park 7, Woodbury 1

Against district rival Woodbury, Stella Fritsche racked up ten strikeouts as the Wolfpack handed the Royals a 9-1 defeat. Edie Walton led the way for the Park hitters by going two for two with two runs batted in. Briana Lee was three for four on the day with a double and a run batted in as well.

Park 11, Mounds View 1

Mounds View was next on the agenda for the Wolfpack and even though they played each other only a few days apart, the result was much the same, a Park win of 11-1 in six innings of work. Stella Fritsche and Mackenzie Darsow combined for a two-hitter, as Darsow hit her first home run as a varsity player for the Wolfpack.