Thrilling finish

Mavs hold off Knights to win Valley title

Judging by the look on Cliff Anderson’s face, it must have been worth it to stop farming Thursday and go to daughter Emily’s softball game in Nicollet. The Mavericks’ shortstop had a hit and stole a base as MCW clinched the Valley Division title with a 10-9 win. Photo from Stephanie Wohlhuter’s Facebook page.

After building a big lead, the Martin County West softball team held off a Nicollet rally as the Mavericks wrapped up the Valley Conference Division side of the Tomahawk Valley Conference with a 10-9 win over the Raiders in Nicollet on Thursday.

MCW scored two runs in the first inning, three in the third and two in the fifth for a 7-0 lead. Nicollet plated a pair in the home half of the fifth, with the Mavericks getting those two runs right back in the top of the sixth and added another in the seventh for a 10-2 lead.

And that’s when things got interesting.

The Raiders got a leadoff single, the Mavericks committed an error and a wild pitch moved the runners to second and third. MCW got an out on a groundout with a run scoring. Maddie Carlson recorded her ninth strikeout, and the Mavericks were one out away from the win with a seven-run lead.

However, Nicollet was far from done.

The Raiders strung together four straight singles and two walks to make it a 10-7 game with the tying run on first.

A ground ball to shortstop followed and the throw to third was not in time to get the out so Nicollet still had the bases load with two outs and now the tying run was in scoring position at second base.

Nicollet’s Taylor Wilking singled up the middle to score one run, but center fielder Hannah Rosenberg’s throw to catcher Emily Schettler at the plate was in time to get the final out and preserve MCW’s one-run win.

Courtney Anderson and Bailey Larson had two hits apiece for the Mavericks. Getting one apiece were Rosenberg, Emily Anderson, Addy Wohlhuter, Rowan Faber and Cami Clow.

Carlson got the pitching win for Martin County West as she went 6.2 innings, allowing nine runs (none of which were earned) on eight hits, walking two and striking out nine. The final out was recorded with Wohlhuter pitching.

MCW will play in the first-ever Tomahawk Valley Conference championship game next week, but the Mavericks have four games to play before that. Look for more on that in a future newsletter.

MCW 203 022 1 – 10 9 3

Nicollet 000 020 7 - 9 9 4