BARNUM — North Woods’ softball season came to an end last Thursday, but not before the Grizzlies gave a higher-seeded South Ridge squad far more of a battle than the teams’ earlier meeting suggested.
The fifth-seeded Panthers edged No. 9 North Woods 5-3 in a Section 7A elimination bracket matchup at Barnum.
South Ridge had defeated North Woods 10-0 back on May 8, but this time the Grizzlies stayed within striking distance throughout.
The Panthers grabbed control early, using three doubles in the bottom of the first inning to build a 2-0 lead.
North Woods answered in the second inning when Emarie Gibson opened the frame with a bunt single, Ella Kruse followed with a single, and Savannah Villebrun delivered an RBI single to right field to score Kruse and cut the deficit to 2-1.
North Woods continued to pressure South Ridge throughout the game, stealing seven bases and manufacturing scoring chances even when hits were hard to come by.
Meanwhile, pitcher Zoey Burckhardt settled in after the rough first inning and kept North Woods within reach. Burckhardt struck out six, walked only two, and worked out of several jams over the middle innings, including scoreless third and fourth frames.
South Ridge added to its lead in the fifth. After opening the inning with a single, the Panthers used stolen bases and a run-scoring hit to push the advantage to 3-1 before adding another run on a sacrifice bunt to make it 4-1.
North Woods mounted its biggest threat in the sixth.
Burckhardt and Gibson both drew walks to open the inning before Kayla Dougherty singled to load the bases.
The Grizzlies then manufactured two runs with aggressive baserunning.
Burckhardt stole home during a walk to Villebrun, and Gibson later scored during another steal sequence to trim the South Ridge lead to 4-3.
Dougherty represented the tying run at third when Brynn Chosa came up and reached on an infield single to first, but the ball stayed in the infield and Dougherty had to hold, keeping South Ridge ahead 4-3. Sophie Bangs then flied out to right to end the threat.
South Ridge answered immediately in the bottom of the sixth with an insurance run to restore a two-run cushion at 5-3.
The Grizzlies finished with five hits, one each from Brynn Chosa, Gibson, Kruse, Dougherty and Villebrun. North Woods also drew six walks in the contest.
North Woods closed the season with an 11-10 record.