The Northwestern High School softball team needed a win at Barron Monday night in order to win the Heart O' North Conference title outright. It took nine innings, but the Tigers eventually got their title, as they defeated Barron 6-4.
"You could tell it was a prom weekend. The girls had nothing left in the tank," NHS coach Rees Flint said.
He told the girls to just go out and play the best they could, even though they were tired from last weekend's festivities,
"It wasn't pretty, but we got the job done," Flint said.
Northwestern began the scoring with three runs in the top of the second, but Barron answered by scoring three runs in the bottom of the fourth.
ADVERTISEMENT
At the top of the fifth, the Tigers reclaimed their lead with one run scored. Once again, however, Barron responded, scoring a run of its own in the bottom of the fifth to tie the game at four and eventually send it into extra innings.
Larissa Flint led off the ninth inning with a single, and a base hit from Kristina Korhonen put runners on first and third. Hanna Paquette then drove in Flint with the go-ahead run. Marissa Pooler topped off the inning with an RBI single to score Korhonen for the 6-4 lead.
The Tigers retired Barron's batters 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning to preserve the win.
Also with singles for the Tigers were Lindsay Garay, Shelly Schneider, Paquette and Katie Pearson.
Garay pitched the first four innings for Northwestern, and Flint pitched the last five for the win. The two combined for eight strikeouts and two walks while allowing six hits.
With the win, the Tigers advance to 17-1 overall and a conference best 13-1 in the HON.
Northwestern will play Thursday at Hurley. Both teams have received a first-round bye in the playoffs, which also begin on Thursday.
