Today I thought we were pretenders. I didn’t like our approach in the box.”

Wolfpack head coach Tomy Young

The ninth-ranked Wolfpack picked up two non-conference wins Saturday at Spring Lake Park, first downing the host school 9-1, then edging Hill Murray in a slugfest 11-8.
Park moved its record to 9-3 on the season and 3-0 in non-conference play.

Park’s game Monday against No. 19 White Bear Lake was rained out. The Wolfpack (6-3, 9-3) play a non-conference game at fifth-ranked Rogers (11-1) Wednesday, play at Mounds View/Irondale (4-5, 9-5) on Friday, then go to Cretin-Derham Hall (1-7, 3-7) Monday afternoon.

Park 2, East Ridge 0

It wasn’t the prettiest softball game you’ve even seen Friday at Charlie Whitbred Field. But it was a 2-0 win for the Park Wolfpack over visiting East Ridge.

Afterwards, both coaches and players pondered what they could have done better.

“We talked about being pretenders or contenders,” said Wolfpack head coach Tomy Young. “Today I thought we were pretenders. I didn’t like our approach in the box. We had a lot of lazy fly balls and didn’t make the proper adjustments and if we want to be contenders at the end of the year we’ve got to clean some things up.

“It’s been a long week, this is game four for us,” Young continued. “But champions don’t make excuses. They find a way and we snuck one out two-nothing and hopefully we just keep things rolling.”

The six games in six days was a factor in the game against the Raptors, players said. But not an overwhelming one.

“We’ve had the energy all week,” said sophomore infielder Mackenzie Darsow. “Like everybody is excited to be here. Like we all are wanting to win every single game and I just think that us being connected as a team is what is helping us get through the whole week of being tired and just trying to push through the rest of the week and I just think that our culture is really good on our team and that’s helping us the week.”

The Wolfpack scored one in the third and one in the sixth but left several runners on base throughout. Ava Youngquist had a triple and a single and scored the first run of the game to lead Park offensively. Allyson Grobner and Jenna Squillace had two singles each.

Park senior pitcher Youngquist had a solid complete game, allowing four hits, two walks and nine strikeouts, including striking out three straight East Ridge batters to end the fourth and sixth innings.

“He (coach Young) said that we can’t let someone like hang around, we let them hang around a little too much,” said Youngquist. “We’ve got to make adjustments quicker in the box. I feel like we weren’t on time and we couldn’t get out timing down in the dugout and string our hits together.”

Stillwater 3, Park 2

Park, which handled 17th-ranked Stillwater easily in the first meeting between the two teams this season, dropped a tough 3-2 decision on the road Wednesday. The Wolfpack won the first game between the two rivals 9-2 in the season opener. But the Ponies evened the series Wednesday in a tight contest.

Park 10, Cretin-Derham Hall 2

The Wolfpack managed the Raiders Tuesday, April 21, winning 10-2 at Cretin-Derham Hall.