Trojans’ offense held in check at State

The New Prague Trojan softball team faced two tough teams from the Suburban East Conference at the State Class AAAA softball tournament and lost both games, finishing their season with an 18-10 record.

New Prague lost its opening game to Woodbury, 8-2, then lost 14-0 to Park of Cottage Grove, which came into the tournament as the No. 1- ranked team in the state.

For Coach Ashley Walker’s team, while the losses were disappointing, there are also great expectations as the Trojans lose only one player to graduation.

Royals 8, Trojans 2 New Prague put two runners on base in the top of the first, but couldn’t bring them home, and it was Woodbury that scored the game’s first run in the bottom of the second on an RBI single by Shannon Motzko.

The Royals added two runs in the third on a two-run home run by Alexis Jacobs.

An RBI triple by Meagan Bliese in the bottom of the fourth gave Woodbury a 4-0 lead, and Grace Beseman’s two-run homer in the fifth inning made it 6-0. Woodbury scored two more in the sixth on two hits and an error to take an 8-0 lead going into the final inning.

The Trojans finally got on the board in the top of the seventh inning. Emily Schmitz led off the inning with a single to right, and Nichole Reed followed with a two run blast over the center field fence, cutting the lead to 8-2.

New Prague tried to do more damage. Kennedy Buckman and Taylor Hustad had a pair of one-out singles, but the game ended with a fielder’s choice to short and a grounder to third.

For the game, the Trojans had eight hits, but weren’t able to string many of them together. Hustad and Yvette Hanson had two hits each for the Trojans.

Starting pitcher Mia Kraimer went 4-1/3 innings, allowing 10 hits and six runs while striking out three. Lauren Vivant came to pitch 1- 2/3 innings, allowing two hits and two runs while striking out one.

Wolfpack 14, Trojans 0 The No. 1-ranked Wolfpack from Park High School lost their opener to Buffalo 1-0, and took out their frustrations on the Trojans in the consolation semifinals. Park had 16 hits and 14 runs while allowing just one run, a base hit by Emily Schmitz in the fourth inning, to defeat New Prague 14-0 in five innings.

Kraimer started for the Trojans, but gave up six runs in the second inning and three more in the third. Park added one more in the fourth. Reliever Maggie Vivant pitched in the fifth and gave up four more runs.

Schmitz had a single with....

To see more on this story pick up the June 16, 2016 print edition of The New Prague Times. 

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