Softball: Tigers split Missota contests

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Farmington’s third defensive miscue of the game proved costly Monday night. Chanhassen’s leadoff hitter doubled to start the seventh and came around to score the game-winning run after an error in a 4-3 victory for the Storm at Farmington High School.

The Tigers (2-2) twice overcame one-run deficits to tie the game. After Chanhassen scored a run in the top of the first, Aleah Williamson led off the bottom of the inning with a triple and scored on an Alyssa Kalmes base hit. Ashley Betzold followed with a third straight hit, but three straight pop outs left the score at 1-1 after one.

The Tigers claimed their only lead with another run in the bottom of the second. Taylor Yousse started the inning with a single, moved into scoring position on another Williamson hit and scored on another Kalmes single.

Chanhassen led 3-2 by the time Betzold led off the bottom of the fifth with a single. Courtesy runner Erin Wurst moved up on a Dani Muelken sacrifice bunt and Allie Rice tied the game at 3-3 with a suicide squeeze bunt.

“I know we could have and should have won tonight,” Farmington coach Rob Laden said. “To be that close and come up short, it just shows us we have to keep improving and making adjustments to our game. We need to get better defensively and not pop the ball up so much.”

Betzold pitched all seven innings and allowed four runs (two earned) while surrendering 13 hits and striking out four.

Williamson finished with three of Farmington’s 10 hits. Kalmes and Betzold each added 2-for-4 showings at the plate.

The Tigers were celebrating their annual Youth Night and 93 youth players and their families attended the game.

“It was a great night, except we didn’t capture the win,” Laden said.

Farmington 10,

New Prague 5

After having two straight games rained out, Farmington’s batters didn’t seem to miss a beat. Playing for the first time in nine days, the Tigers produced their first 10-run game since last May 8 while doubling up New Prague on the road last Thursday.

“It was great to see the girls’ five weeks of hitting in the gym pay off on the field tonight,” Laden said. “The Tigers have worked really hard on improving the little things and it showed tonight. New Prague is a good team and it was a good win for our team.”

The Tigers never trailed after plating four runs in the top of the first inning. Aleah Williamson started the inning with a base hit and eventually scored on a single up the middle by Dani Muelken. Ashley Betzold and Alyssa Hagen drew walks to load the bases and Allie Rice hit a hard grounder past the shortstop to score two more.

The score was 4-1 when Betzold, Muelken and Hagen strung together three hits to score another run in the top of the third. The Trojans countered with three runs in the bottom of the inning, making it 5-4, but Betzold allowed just one run over the final four innings to preserve the win.

Betzold finished with four strikeouts and allowed four earned runs in seven innings.

The Tigers scored two more in the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Williamson and an RBI ground out by Kalmes. Taylor Yousse added a two-run single in the fifth to make it 9-4 and Muelken capped the scoring with her third hit, an RBI single in the sixth.

The Tigers are back in action tomorrow when they host No. 8 (Class 3A) Shakopee. The Sabers blanked the Tigers 4-0 in their season opener April 7 in Shakopee.

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