Frazee softball team ends regular season with a 14-4 record

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

The Frazee softball team will open the sub section tournament with a bit of momentum on their side as the Hornets have won six straight games to end the regular season. 

The Hornets, who are 14-4 overall and finished as the runner up in the Heart O’ Lakes Conference with a record of 9-3, will take on either eighth seeded Pelican Rapids or ninth seeded Otter Tail Central on Tuesday night at home. The game will start at approximately 5 p.m.

Following Tuesday’s opening round games, the sub section tournament will continue on Thursday with the semi-finals and finals in Frazee. The first game will take place at 4 p.m. with the sub section finals set for 5:30 p.m.

Other opening round match ups include: second seeded Hawley against seventh seeded Perham, third seeded Barnesville against sixth seeded Wadena-Deer Creek and fourth seeded Breckenridge against fifth seeded Fergus Falls.

The Section 8AA tournament will continue next week in Thief River Falls. The Section 8AA semi-finals will take place on May 31 at 3:30 p.m. with the elimination bracket beginning earlier in the day. The section tournament will come to a close on June 2 in Thief River Falls with the section championship. 

The state softball tournament is set for June 9-10 at Caswell Park in North Mankato. 

Last week the Hornets swept Breckenridge and Barnesville in a pair of conference doubleheaders, before ending their season on Friday with a 7-4 win over Park Rapids Area. 

Tuesday

Frazee won its first of two games against Breckenridge in walk-off fashion when Faith Hamm connected on a two out RBI single to bring Anna Drewes across the plate and end a dramatic come-from-behind win. 

The Hornets trailed 6-0 heading into the bottom of the fourth inning, before Anna Malikowski hit a two out RBI single and Drewes followed with a 2-run double to cut the Breckenridge lead down to 6-3.

The Hornets were able to get the bases loaded in the fifth inning, but were unable to get a run across the plate, but were able to score a pair of runs in the sixth inning when Kiley Karger hit a 2-run double to make the score 6-5 in favor of Breckenridge. That set up the dramatic win for the Hornets in the bottom of the seventh inning.

In the second game of the night, the Hornets once again used a late inning surge to blow past Breckenridge by a score of 14-8. The Hornets actually trailed in the game by a score of 6-2 in the top of the fourth inning, before scoring 5 runs in the fifth and seventh innings to come away with the win. 

As a team, the Hornets totaled 20 hits in the win with 3 doubles. 

Malena Mahoney had 4 of those hits, while Karger and Kate Vigen each had 3. Karger, Hamm, Hailee Olson, Malikowski and Drewes each finished the game with 2 RBIs. 

Game one AB R H     BI

Malena Mahoney 3 0 0 0

Annika Reierson 3 0 0 0

Kiley Karger 4 0 2 0

Faith Hamm 3 0 1 1

Claire Pausch 4 0 2 0

Hailee Olson 2 1 0 0

Rylea Sandberg 1 0 0 0

Ashley Malikowski 4 1 1 1

Kate Vigen 4 3 2 0

Anna Drewes 3 2 2 2

HITTING- 2B- Malikowski

PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-k)- Malena Mahoney 7-9-6-4-2-6

Game two AB R H     BI

Malena Mahoney 4 1 4 1

Annika Reierson 3 2 2 0

Kiley Karger 4 2 3 2

Faith Hamm 5 2 2 2

Claire Pausch 5 1 1 1

Hailee Olson 5 1 1 1

Ashley Malikowski 4 2 2 2

Kate Vigen 5 2 3 0

Anna Drewes 5 1 1 2

HITTING- 2B- Mahoney, Hamm, Pausch

PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-k)- Riyan Eckert 5-8-7-6-3-1, Malena Mahoney 2-3-1-1-2-3

Thursday

Malena Mahoney gave up just 3 hits, while striking out 10 Barnesville batters as the Frazee Hornets defeated Barnesville by a score of 8-2 on Thursday. The game was the first of two played on Thursday between the two teams.

The Hornets got the scoring going in the top of the first inning when Kiley Karger hit a 2-run double to make the score 2-0. The Hornets added another run in the second inning and made the score 6-1 when Mahoney hit a 2-run single in the third inning. 

The Hornets added a pair of runs in the sixth inning to come away with the 8-2 win.

In the second game of the day, Frazee defeated Barnesville in a dramatic walk-off win in the bottom of the 11th inning on an Anna Drewes RBI single to come away with a 3-2 win and complete the two game sweep.

The Hornets opened the scoring in the first inning when Annika Reierson scored on an error. Barnesville tied the game at 1-1 in the fourth inning and it remained that way until Barnesville scored on a fielder’s choice in the top of the ninth inning. The Hornets quickly answered that run in the bottom half of the inning when Kate Vigen crossed the plate to send the game into the 10th inning.

Mahoney won both games on Thursday as she pitched 18 innings and gave up just 12 hits and 3 earned runs. 

Game one AB R H     BI

Malena Mahoney 5 1 2 2

Annika Reierson 4 2 0 0

Kiley Karger 4 0 1 2

Faith Hamm 3 2 0 0

Claire Pausch 3 0 0 0

Hailee Olson 4 1 1 0

Ashley Malikowski 4 1 1 0

Kate Vigen 4 1 1 0

Anna Drewes 3 0 0 0

HITTING- 2B- Karger

PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-k)- Malena Mahoney 7-3-2-2-2-10

Game two AB R H     BI

Malena Mahoney 4 0 0 0

Annika Reierson 3 1 1 0

Kiley Karger 3 0 0 0

Faith Hamm 4 0 0 0

Claire Pausch 4 0 0 0

Hailee Olson 4 0 0 0

Ashley Malikowski 4 1 1 0

Kate Vigen 4 1 3 0

Anna Drewes 2 0 1 1

HITTING- 2B- Malikowski 

PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-k)- Malena Mahoney 11-9-2-1-3-8

Friday

Frazee ended its regular season on a high note on Friday as the Hornets won their sixth straight game with a 7-4 victory over Park Rapids.

The Hornets scored 3 runs in both the second and third inning, before scoring a run in the fourth inning to take a 7-2 lead. Park Rapids scored single runs in the second, fourth, fifth and sixth innings. 

Frazee pumped out 8 hits in the win with Malena Mahoney and Faith Hamm each getting 2 apiece.

Riyan Eckert picked up the win on the mound as she gave up just 10 hits and struck out 2 hitters over 7 innings of action.

AB R H     BI

Malena Mahoney 2 1 2 1

Annika Reierson 2 0 1 1

Kiley Karger 4 0 0 0

Faith Hamm 2 2 2 0

Claire Pausch 4 1 1 0

Hailee Olson 3 0 0 1

Ashley Malikowski 3 1 1 1

Kate Vigen 2 1 0 0

Anna Drewes 2 1 1 1

HITTING- 2B- Malikowski, Drewes

PITCHING (ip-h-r-er-bb-k)- Riyan Eckert 7-10-4-4-5-2