Another close one
Mavericks pull out win over Eagles
Martin County West and Windom played a close, competitive softball game for the third year in a row Friday and the Mavericks came out on top, edging the Eagles 3-2 at the Windom Recreation Area.
MCW had won 11-10 last season after Windom had claimed a 3-1 win in 2024.
MCW junior Madde Carlson and Windom senior Anja Nielsen locked up in a pitcher’s duel with Carlson driving in the winning run in the top of the seventh.
It was the second strong showing in the circle in as many nights for Carlson, who combined with Sydney Clow on a no-hitter the previous night.
On Friday she went the distance against the Eagles, allowing two runs on four hits, not walking a batter and striking out nine. In Thursday’s 15-0, four inning win over Alden-Conger/Glenville-Emmons, Carlson pitched three no-hit innings, walking one and striking out seven.
In Friday’s game, Carlson was hit on the wrist on a line drive hit right back at her in the sixth inning, but she said her wristband was covering it, so she was okay.
Windom did manage to score that inning, sending the game to the seventh inning tied 2-2.
In the MCW seventh, Rowan Faber reached on an error followed by a foul popup to the catcher.
Faber stole second and advanced to third on a ground out by Courtney Anderson.
That brought up Carlson with a chance to drive in the go-ahead run.
“I was terrified,” Carlson said of the two-out situation. “I was like ‘okay, please Lord, help me’ and it worked. I think I had two strikes on me and I did it.”
In fact, Carlson was down 0-2 in the count before taking Ball 1.
She hit the next pitch to right field, with Windom right fielder Brooklyn Prokosch making a diving attempt at near the foul line, but couldn’t hang on to, resulting in an RBI double.
“Their outfielder made a heck of an effort and almost came up with it,” said MCW coach Darrell Ziegler. “I think it popped out when she hit the ground. That jarred her enough to make it come out of her glove.”
Prior to Carlson’s double, the only hit for the Mavericks was a fifth-inning leadoff single by Emma Geldart.
“It was definitely different in pitching from (Thursday) to (Friday) and we knew that was going to be the case,” Ziegler said. “We’ve had three years in a row now of close games with Windom we’ve had some really competitive.”
The veteran Mavericks’ mentor was pleased with the performance of his pitcher.
“Maddie did a nice job again tonight, getting ahead in the count and throwing lots of strikes,” he said. “For the most part we made our plays defensively. (Windom) had some good at bats, put the bat on the ball and fouled a number of pitches off and it was good to see the defense make the plays.
Carlson had established some MCW school history in the season opener as she recorded her 500th career strikeout, although it caught her a bit off-guard.
“I remember seeing a stat sheet last year and seeing that number but I completely forgot about it,” so I wasn’t nervous about it.”
Carlson joins Taylor Saxen as the only Martin County West pitchers to reach that mark.
But the Mavericks aren’t looking at statistics.
“We really just want to focus on working together as a team and moving forward,” Carlson commented. “We lost some big seniors last year but we’re filling those spots and we’re going to have a good mindset for every game, have a positive attitude and work hard.”
MCW is scheduled to open its home schedule in Welcome on Monday vs. Mountain Lake Area/Comfrey, which is 1-1, losing 11-1 to Sleepy Eye and beating Nicollet 7-4.
“They should be a very competitive team,” Ziegler said. “They only had one senior last year and played well at the end of the season.”
The Mavericks are scheduled to be at home again Thursday vs. Madelia and play at defending state champion and Class A top-ranked United South Central on Friday.
