AURORA- The North Woods softball team didn’t pack shoulder pads for their first outing of the season last Thursday, but their game against Mesabi East was played on a makeshift diamond on the Giants’ synthetic turf football field.
It was a tight struggle but no football score, as the host Giants won the contest on the game’s final play, 5-4.
Ace hurler Evelyn Brodeen took the ball for the Grizzlies at the start, and Helen Koch staked her teammate to a one-run lead in the top of the first by stealing home. Brodeen handed that run back and one more in the bottom half of the inning by walking the first batter then giving up a home run on a drive to left field. Brodeen shook it off and rang up a strikeout for the final out, and was relatively sharp for the remainder of her time on the mound, giving up just one more run in the third.
The Grizzlies clawed back to even in their second at bat, with Karah Scofield rapping a single, stealing second and third, and coming home on a sacrifice grounder by Nevadah Gauthier.
Trailing 3-2 in the top of the fourth, North Woods got the equalizer when Avery Thiel scored from third on a passed ball. They regained the lead 4-3 in the fifth when Addie Burckhardt replicated Scofield’s second-inning score by singling, stealing two bases, and scoring on a Koch grounder.
Koch took over on the mound for Brodeen in the bottom of the fifth. Koch struck out the first batter she faced, then gave up a single with the runner reaching third on a fielding error. Another Grizzlies’ error allowed the run to score, tying the game at 4-4, but Koch rang up another strikeout and forced a ground out to get out of the inning.
Neither team scored again until the bottom of the eighth. The first Mesabi East batter laced a double to center field, a bunt pushed her over to third, then scored on an infield grounder to end the game 5-4.
Brodeen was charged with the loss. North Woods had five hits and four errors in the contest, while Mesabi East had nine hits and no errors.