Errors add up as Chargers fall to Bucs in 5

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau
Minnesoa Valley Lutheran’s Jess Meunier connects for a single in the fourth inning during a nonconference softball game against Waterville-Elysian-Morristown on Friday at MVL High School in New Ulm.

NEW ULM — Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s struggled to maintain their early success at the plate Friday in a nonconference softball game with Waterville-Elysian-Morristown.

Buccaneers starting pitcher Alix Velzke got plenty of offense from her teammates on the other hand as they rolled to a 12-1 win over the Chargers in five innings at MVL High School.

The game ended in five innings due to the 10-run lead rule.

Velzke pitched all five innings in the win and allowed one earned run on five hits and a walk while striking out five. Robynn Schwichtenberg was 2 for 4 with two doubles and an RBI for WEM, while Alayna Atherton added a home run.

Katlyn Stadick took the loss in five innings, allowing four earned runs on six hits and six walks while striking out three. Ashlyn Rodewald was 1 for 2 with a double and an RBI to lead the Chargers at the plate, while Kenna Dressel added a triple.

A two-run homer by Atherton put WEM up 2-0 in the first, but MVL put three hits together in the bottom half of the inning to get a run back. The hits all came with two outs and started with a single by Karlee Prahl. Rodewald then doubled to left on a hit-and-run to score Prahl before Grace Onken kept the hit parade going with a single to right.

Rodewald got picked off of third, however, to end the inning.

Velzke then dialed in and had consecutive 1-2-3 innings in the second and third as her team gave her even more run support.

After that first inning, MVL’s only offense came on an infield single from Jess Meunier in the fourth and a two-out triple from Dressel in the fifth.

“I think they got a little excited and started pulling their head a little bit instead of keeping focused on the pitch and keeping their head in and seeing the ball in,” MVL head coach Katie Scherer said.

WEM got three runs in the second after a throwing error to first allowed two to score with two outs. A double then scored another run for a 5-1 WEM lead.

The fifth inning saw the Buccaneers bat around without even needing to always swing the bat. The inning saw three hits, two walks and three MVL errors put WEM up 12-1. Schwichtenberg had both of her doubles in that inning, while Kaedyn Judd added a two-run single.

“We have talked a lot about errors,” Scherer said. “We’ve come a long way. In the beginning of the year we had almost five errors a game. We’ve gotten it lower, couple games we’ve only had one or two. Our goal is to get back to that area. We know we’re not perfect, so we’re probably going to have one a game, it would be great, so we’ve been working in practice on just consistency there. Keep trying to keep that mental focus as well, we’ve had some mental errors. Today especially, I saw a couple where we just weren’t thinking.”

WEM, now 5-9 overall, hosts Blooming Prairie on Monday.

MVL, now 2-12 overall, will end its regular season next week with a trio of conference games against a couple of other young teams that have had their share of struggles this season in Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop (0-14) and Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart (2-11).

MVL travels to WInthrop first on Monday to take on GFW before hosting BLHS in a doubleheader Tuesday.

“Our mindset doesn’t really change,” Scherer said. “I think we still have to come in and treat them respectably. We haven’t seen BLHS, we saw them last year but we didn’t play our varsity team against them, so it’ll be a new game for us as well. Just making sure we’re still going through the basics going through what we’ve done in practice will be [key].”