A stellar pitching performance nearly lifted the Vermilion Ironhawks softball team to an upset in the opening of conference play.
Pitcher Brooklyn Hager kept division favorite Central Lakes off balance for much of Saturday’s community college softball matchup, but the Raiders scratched across one run to pull out a 1-0 victory over Blaine.
Central Lakes dominated the rest of the four-game weekend set, played under the cover of a dome, and cruised to 17-1, 11-2 and 16-5 wins in the remaining three games.
Vermilion, which takes part in the annual MCAC Crossover Series this weekend at Rochester, fell to 0-8 for the spring.
Central Lakes traditionally has the top team in the Northern Division, but the Raiders were tested by the Ironhawks in the second game of Saturday’s twinbill.
The Raiders pushed across an unearned run in the fifth, but that was all they could muster against Hager.
The North Dakota native allowed only three hits, didn’t walk a batter and finished with six strikeouts.
She was outdueled by the Raiders’ Joze Tautges, who fired a four-hitter with three walks and eight strikeouts.
Adriana Pena, Makayla Mihajlovich, Ashley Liebl and Madison Bowling had Vermilion’s hits.
In Saturday’s opening game, the Raiders struck for six runs in the bottom of the first and rode the pitching of Morgan Kloss, who tossed a three-hitter with seven strikeouts.
Autumn Walker had two of Vermilion’s three hits.
On Sunday, Central Lakes erased an early 2-1 deficit and banged out 12 hits against the Ironhawks.
Mihajlovich singled and drove in both of Vermilions’ runs, while Liebl and Pena both scored for the Ironhawks.
Hager gave up eight hits and Pena came on in relief.
Pena had two hits and two runs batted in during the series finale, and Vermilion led 5-4 after three innings.
But after that it was all Central Lakes, as the Raiders took advantage of six Vermilion errors to pull away.
Walker, Liebel, Hager and Madison Bowling all added hits for Vermilion, but the Raiders’ Lily Roehl doubled, tripled and had four runs batted in.
Tautges struck out seven while going the distance in the circle.
