By Jake Schroer
Crow River News Sports
The Lady Knights softball team picked up two crucial victories and took a loss in the final week of regular season action. STMA defeated Big Lake 6-5 in extra innings Tuesday, lost 6-0 to Buffalo Thursday and beat St. Francis in the regular season finale.
The week began with a thrilling extra innings win over the Big Lake Hornets. Six different Knights drove in runs, but none was bigger than Katie Bierstedt’s RBI double in the bottom of the ninth inning, which pushed across Paige Falde for the game-winning run.
Also driving in runs for the Knights were starting pitcher Brooke Burditt, reliever Riley Carlson, Allison Ross, Maren Hamann, and Elle Potts.
Carlson came in and shut out the Hornets after Burditt allowed five runs in just under five innings of work.
“We had a few errors on the field, but the girls are learning from them, and that’s what we ask is that we don’t make two in a row, so they’re doing well with that,” head coach Kellie Shumway said.
BUFFALO
The Knights lost 6-0 to the Bison out in Buffalo on Thursday. STMA recorded just three hits in the loss. Morgan DeMarais pitched the shutout for Buffalo.
ST. FRANCIS
The season finale saw the Knights defeat the Saints 6-3 behind a four-hit effort from Paige Falde and a strong pitching performance by Brooke Burditt.
Falde hit a two-run home run and had a pair of doubles, driving in three runs for STMA. Annalise Davis scored twice and got on three times with hits.
Elle Potts and Allison Ross collected additional RBI in the win.
The Knights played up in Brainerd on Tuesday in the opening round of the section quarterfinals.