The Minnewaska Area softball team is on a roll, having won three-straight games last week with a doubleheader sweep at Benson last Tuesday (6-5 and 14-12) and a 12-7 win over Ottertail Central, Thursday at home.

The Lakers, who finished 4-10 in the WCC and are 6-13 overall, were also set to host Osakis, Friday, but results of that game will be highlighted next week.

Morris Area won the WCC title with a perfect 14-0 record followed by Melrose (11-3), WCA (10-4), BOLD (8-6), Sauk Centre (6-8), Minnewaska (4-10), Benson (3-11) and Montevideo (0-14).

Coming up this week is the start of the Section 3AA Softball Tourney.  The Lakers have two very strong teams in their half of the section, Dassel-Cokato (15-3) and Morris Area (18-2).

Minnewaska earned the sixth seed in the 7-team sub-section and will face third-seeded NLS in the first round, while Dassel-Cokato beat Morris Area earlier this year, 1-0, to edge the Tigers for the top seed.

There are only six teams in the other half of the section, but five of them have winning records.

Waska 6-14, Benson 5-12

The Lakers earned a doubleheader sweep of Benson last Tuesday night, winning the first game 6-5 in extra innings and also earning a victory in the nightcap, 14-12.

Norah VanZee earned the pitching victory in both games, while Carly Jergenson was 4-for-7 and Eliana Marthaler, Emma Poegel and Jenna Drewes had three hits each to lead the Laker offense.

In game one, the Lakers led 2-0 after one inning and 5-3 after five innings before Benson rallied with two runs in the sixth to send the game into extra innings.

Minnewaska Area got the gamewinner in the ninth and VanZee was able to put down the Braves in the bottom-half of the inning to give the Lakers the victory.

VanZee pitched all nine innings, giving up five hits, five unearned runs and two walks with eight strikeouts.

Drewes was 2-for-5 with two RBI and a stolen base, while Poegel was 2-for-3 with a run, walk, stolen base and double and Jergenson was 2-for-4 with a run scored, two RBI and two stolen bases.

Adding one hit each for the Lakers were Ella Roering, Haillie Schulz, Eliana Marthaler and Avery Lewison.  Lewison’s hit was a triple in the ninth inning and she eventually came home with the winning run on a sacrifice fly by Drewes.

•  In the second game, the Lakers took a 14-0 lead after four innings before the Braves rallied with 12 runs over their final three at-bats.

VanZee earned the pitching win again, throwing six innings and giving up six hits, 10 runs (only three earned) and four walks with five strikeouts.  Mataya Mix came in to pitch the final inning to earn the save.

Carly Jergenson was 2-for-3 at the plate with two runs, an RBI and stolen base, while Eliana Marthaler was 2-for-3 with a double, run, two RBI and a walk.

Also coming through with hits were Drewes, Melanie Lara, Ella Roering, Poegel, Schulz, VanZee and Lewison.

Benson’s Lauren Schmidt had a three-run homerun in the fifth inning to key the Benson rally.

Waska 12, Ottertail Cen 7

The Lakers had five players with two hits each during a 12-7 non-conference win over Ottertail Central, Thursday night at home.

The win gave the Lakers a 5-5 record over their last 10 games.

Mataya Mix earned the complete-game victory to raise her season record to 4-7, while Haillie Schulz, Emma Poegel, Ella Roering, Jenna Drewes and Avery Lewison had two hits each to lead the 12-hit offensive attack for the Lakers.

Schulz was 2-for-4 with two runs, an RBI and two stolen bases, while Poegel was 2-for-3 with a double, two more runs and a walk, Roering was 2-for-2 with two runs, a walk and stolen base, Lewison was 2-for-4 with a run and RBI, and Drewes was 2-for-4 with two runs, two RBI and two stolen bases.

The Lakers trailed 6-0 after OTC’s first at-bat.  Minnewaska scored two in the first and third innings to cut the deficit to 6-4 and then added four runs in the fifth to go ahead for good.

Ally Mogard and Carly Jergenson also had hits for the Lakers, while Mix added an RBI.

Waska 6, at Benson 5

Waska (4-13) 2 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 1 — 6 10 8

Benson 0 0 3 0 0 2 0 0 0 — 5 5 4

HITTING:  WASKA-Jenna Drewes 2-for-5, 2 RBI, sb; Emma Poegel 2-for-3, run, bb, double, sb; Carly Jergenson 2-for-4, run, 2 RBI, 2 sb; Ella Roering 1-for-4, run, RBI; Haillie Schulz 1-for-4; Eliana Marthaler 1-for-3, run, bb; Avery Lewison 1-for-4, run, triple; Ally Mogard 0-for-4, run, bb, sb . . . BEN-Presley Nygaard 3-for-5, double, sb

PITCHING:  WASKA-Norah VanZee (W, 1-1) . . . BEN-Presley Nygaard (L)  9-10-6-3-3-6

Waska 14, Benson 12

Benson 0 0 0 0 7 1 4 — 12 8 1

Waska (5-13) 6 6 1 1 0 0 x — 14 11 5

HITTING:  WASKA-Carly Jergenson 2-for-3, 2 runs, RBI, sb; Eliana Marthaler 2-for-3, double, run, 2 RBI, bb; Jenna Drewes 1-for-3, run, bb; Melanie Lara 1-for-1; Ella Roering 1-for-4, run, RBI; Emma Poegel 1-for-3, 2 runs, RBI, bb, sb; Haillie Schulz 1-for-1, 2 runs, RBI, 2 bb, sb; Norah VanZee 1-for-4, RBI; Avery Lewison 1-for-3, runs, 2 RBI; Ally Mogard 0-for-1, 2 runs, RBI, 2 bb, hbp; Xi Li 0-for-0 run, bb; Amanda Lohre 0-for-0, run, bb . . BEN-Paige Wrobleski 2-for-3, 3 runs, 2 RBI, bb, 2 sb

PITCHING:  (ip-h-r-er-bb-so):  WASKA-Norah VanZee (W, 2-1)  6-6-10-3-4-5; Mataya Mix (Sv) 1-2-2-0-0-1 . . BEN-Presley Nygaard (L)  0-3-5-5-2-0; Mya McGeary 6-7-8-6-7-2

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at Waska 12, OTC 7

OTC 6 0 0 0 0 1 0 — 7 9 3

Waska (6-13) 2 0 2 0 4 4 x — 12 12 4

HITTING:  WASKA-Haillie Schulz 2-for-4, 2 runs, RBI, 2 sb; Emma Poegel 2-for-3, double, 2 runs, bb; Ella Roering 2-for-2, 2 runs, bb, sb; Jenna Drewes 2-for-4, 2 runs, 2 RBI, 2 sb; Avery Lewison 2-for-4, run, RBI; Ally Mogard 1-for-4, run, bb, sb; Carly Jergenson 1-for-3, 2 runs, RBI, bb; Mataya Mix, 0-for-3, RBI . . OTC-N/A

PITCHING:  (ip-h-r-er-bb-so):  WASKA-Mataya Mix (W, 4-7)  7-9-7-3-3-5 . . . OTC-N/A

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