It was a cold, wet and windy softball season opener Monday – but the Park High bats were hot.

Visiting Park rapped out 12 hits in a 13-1 five-inning victory over host Cretin-Derham Hall at St. Paul. Grace Conaway rapped out a three-run homer run over the centerfield fence in the decisive fourth inning to bust the game wide open.

After a scoreless first inning, Park pushed across four runs in the second on the strength of two singles sandwiched in between four walks.

Park led 4-0 after three innings, and then made it a 7-0 lead after the fourth.

Skyler Crocker and Briana both doubled to get the Wolfpack started in the fourth. Corinna Loshek singled to set the stage for Conaway’s blast to deep center.

Park added six runs in the fifth to close out the game. Edie Walton tripled and Skyler Croker doubled while Bryleigh Dana, Autumn Degler, Gracie Bond and Brianna Lee each had singles.

“I thought it was awesome,” said Park right fielder Emma Ambroz. “It was super fun just to be back together and we played super well. Great defense, great offense, too. We played hard, we were talking. I think it went really well.”

The conditions didn’t seem to bother the Park players much.

“We don’t really think about that stuff,” Ambroz said. “We just come to play every game, it doesn’t matter what the weather is or what the circumstances are, we’re ready when we come to play every game.”

Starting pitcher Bond had a solid outing on the mound for the Wolfpack. She struck out four, walked three and allowed just one hit in four innings of work. She was replaced by Skylar Crocker who pitched the fifth and final inning.

“They’re just young,” said head coach Bob Loshek when asked what the Wolfpack did well and not so well in the game. “They’re young and made young mistakes – things that you hope get cleaned up by mid-season, by the end of the year and for sure in the future years to come. But doing well, they played hard. They played in horrible conditions today. The wind, the rain, it was a wind chill of 34 degrees. And a lot of teams postponed or canceled. But the girls wanted to play, they were excited when I told them we were playing. They fought and had a lot of grit together for the first time playing together.”

Park (1-0) hosts Woodbury (0-0) Wednesday in a Suburban East Conference game starting at 4:30 p.m.

Park’s Gracie Bond throws a strike in the third-inning against Cretin-Derham Hall Monday in the Wolfpack’s softball season opener. Photo by John Molene