Softball: Menahga splits conference games with Pillager, OTC

PILLAGER – Menahga followed a five-run fifth inning with a nine-run sixth inning to salvage a Park Region Conference split at Pillager on Monday, May 9.

After Pillager won the opener 8-0, the Braves regrouped for a 14-9 victory in the second game.

Joie Koll and Anna Pietila had two singles each and Kyah Jantz had a single to account for the Braves’ five hits in the first game. Koll took the loss, allowing 11 hits and striking out four in six innings.

In the second game, Koll’s two-run double and Leah Weaver’s two-run homer were the key hits for Menahga in the fifth inning while RBI singles by Weaver and Michaela Skoog and a two-run double by Aili Anderson along with three errors sparked the final runs in the sixth.

Pietila (2 for 3, two runs, two RBI), Weaver (2 for 4, two runs, four RBI) and Anderson (2 for 2, two runs) led the Braves’ nine-hit attack.

Weaver earned the win, giving up 10 hits and striking out four in 6.1 innings before Koll finished up.

BATTLE LAKE – Despite being held to only 11 hits, the Braves managed to earn a split with Ottertail Central in another conference doubleheader on Tuesday, May 10.

Menahga was held to five hits in dropping the opener 2-1. A double by Skoog and an RBI single by Journie Schoon in the seventh accounted for the Braves’ lone run. Pietila, Molly Hendrickson and Koll had singles for the other hits. Koll took the loss, allowing two unearned runs on one hit and one walks while striking out six.

The Braves capitalized on 11 walks, two hit batters, three errors and four wild pitches for an 8-4 victory in the second game. Four walks, an error and two wild pitches led to two runs in the first before two more errors, three walks, two wild pitches and Koll’s single produced four runs in the fourth. An RBI triple by Hendrickson and an RBI single by Weaver accounted for the final two runs in the fifth.

Koll went 3 for 5 with three runs and Hendrickson scored three runs as Menahga had six hits. Weaver picked up the win, allowing four runs on five hits and four walks with four strikeouts in 5.1 innings. Koll finished up, giving up one hit and striking out three.

The split gave the Braves a 7-4 record in the conference and an 8-6 overall mark.