Elmwood atop D-SC standings with three wins last week

• Larissa Feuerhelm

Photo by Sean Scallon Spring Valley-Plum City third baseman Larissa Feuerhelm tries to put the tag on Elmwood’s Erika Wolf in last week’s Dunn-St. Croix softball action. Wolf helped to lead the Raiders to a sweep of the Cardinals.

Talk about it

ELMWOOD — For a group of girls who didn’t find a lot of success in other athletic endeavors this school season, last week was pretty sweet for Elmwood.

We’re talking sugar beet harvest sweet.

Although EHS lost a non-conference game to Ellsworth Friday, the Raiders won three straight D-SC games, including a sweep of Pierce County rival Spring Valley-Plum City.

The Raiders beat the Cardinals by combined scores of 9-0 and 13-1. Along with a win over Elk Mound, Elmwood sits atop the Dunn-St. Croix standings with an 8-1 record, a game ahead of St. Croix Central.

“At this point in our conference schedule, I couldn't be more pleased with the heart and fight that this team has.” EHS head coach Kim Webb said.

The losses put defending champ SV-PC pretty much out of the league title race but Elmwood is still running as they face Pepin and Glenwood City this week and St. Croix Central the next.

How sweet it is

Elmwood began last week by winning at Elk Mound 5-3 back on April 27. The Raiders scored four runs in the sixth to take a 5-1 lead and held on despite two Mounder runs in the bottom half of the sixth. Elmwood only had four hits but took advantage of three EM errors. Kayla Smith drove in two runs off one of those errors while Amanda Brunner was able to get an RBI-single. Kelsey Leach pitched a six-hitter to get the win and struck out 10 batters.

Then came the Tuesday-Thursday showdowns with Spring Valley-Plum City. However, the show was on the Raider side as they allowed just one Cardinal run in two ballagames.

Leach gave up just one extra base hit and had 10Ks in the Tuesday’s contest in Elmwood while she pitched a five hitter in Thursday’s make-up contest at Spring Valley.

Elmwood bashed the ball in game one. Both Leach and Erika Wolf each had two hits with leach hitting an RBI-triple. Wolf hit two doubles and drove in a run and Brunner doubled too.

But it was Renee Lehmann who grabbed the whole enchilada with a sixth inning grand slam homer that broke open the contest.

Elmwood only had five hits in game two but were aided by a whopping 19 walks by SV-PC pitchers.

“I tried to keep the ball away from Wolf and Brunner after they were really killing us Tuesday,” SV-PC head coach Earl Gunderson said. “We walked them intentionally. But we had way too many unintentional walks and Elmwood hit the ball well enough. Plus we had three errors as well. We made things very difficult on ourselves last week.”

Lehmann and Leach each had two hits in game two. Both Smith and Virginia Morgan drove in two runs.

The Cardinals’ top hitter in game two was Aarynn Deutsch with two along with an RBI while Billie Nelson doubled. Back on Tuesday SV-PC was led at the plate by Kimmy Keehr’s two hits, including a triple.

Weekend relief

Spring Valley-PC’s difficulties continued Friday as they were downed at home by Pepin 7-4. The Lakers took a 5-0 leadoff six hits including a solo shot by Samantha Westphal before Cards plated three runs in the fifth. Pepin scored twice more in the sixth thanks to a two-out RBI-double by Kylie Haglund. SV-PC’s Nelson, Deutsch and Christina McKune all had two hits with McKune hitting a double. The Cards outhit Pepin 11-8 but had just one extra base hit and stranded nine base runners.

The Cards did fine some weekend relief at the Luck Tournament. After losing 13-8 to the host team, SV-PC beat Hayward 7-6 and Hinckley-Finlayson, Minn. 9-4. Keehr had three hits, three RBIs and three stolen bases vs. H-F. She also hit a two-RBI double. Ally Gould hit an RBI-triple in the same game. Both Gould and Keehr had three hits each vs. Hayward with Keehr having two triple and three RBIs. McKune won both games, giving up just seven hits combined.

Tags: sports, softball, girls, elmwood