REGIONAL- The North Woods Grizzlies softball team hit a rough patch this past week, dropping games against Littlefork-Big Falls, Cherry, South Ridge, Ely, and Greenway-Nashwauk-Keewatin.
Monday’s home matchup against the Titans of GNK was the biggest beatdown of them all, a 20-4 pasting that was capped by a nine-run Titans’ seventh inning.
GNK got out to a fast start with a pair of first-inning doubles and four runs off Grizzlies starter Zoey Burckhardt. They added two runs in the second and third innings to go up 8-0 before North Woods finally got on the board in the third. Rory Bundy rapped a single to right and was replaced by pinch runner Josie Gibson. Gibson came around to score on a big triple by Burckhardt.
After the Titans scored three in the top of the fourth, including the first of two home runs by Ava Johnson, the Grizzlies got back to work on the basepads. Evalyn Thiel got on board with a one-out single and Gibson came on again as a pinch runner. Addie Burckhardt took a base after being hit by a pitch, putting runners at first and second for Brynn Chosa, who stroked a double to bring Gibson in to score. Then Bundy connected on her second single of the game, scoring Burckhardt. The inning ended with the score 11-3.
North Woods got two strong defensive innings, holding the Titans scoreless in the fifth and sixth, but everything fell apart in the top of the seventh. Aided by seven Grizzlies’ errors, the Titans brought 13 players to the plate and scored nine runs. Kayla Dougherty tripled and scored for North Woods in the Grizzlies’ final at bat to account for the 20-4 final.
The only close game of the bunch was Friday’s contest against Ely, 4-3. The report of that game can be found elsewhere in the Timberjay sports section.
The loss to the Timberwolves was the second loss of the day for North Woods, as the Grizzlies had an early afternoon game against South Ridge, which the Panthers won 10-3. Hosting Cherry on Thursday, the Grizzlies fell 12-3, and Wednesday’s road trip to Littlefork-Big Falls resulted in a 17-7 loss.
Grizzlies Head Coach Dee Ann Sandberg noted that the Grizzlies had been error-prone during the losing streak, and that while they were getting runners on base they weren’t stringing together the hits they needed to score.
North Woods will play at Cook County on Thursday and wind down the regular season on Friday at home against International Falls.