AURORA—The Mesabi East girl’s softball team did not get off to a good start on Wednesday afternoon against Chisholm.
But when they did, the Giants played great offense and defense and got some stellar pitching from Reese Heikkila on their way to an 8-0 win over the Bluestreaks.
“It took some time to get going today,” Mesabi East head coach Matt Zimmer said. “The way that Reese tossed the ball out there today was big for us.”
Abby Duchene took the mound for Chisholm and set the Giants down in order in the first and third innings, while Heikkila gave up a single to Avaya Dobis in the first inning and and a single to Audriana LaBarge in the top of the second.
But the Giants defense held the Bluestreaks off the board.
The Giants opened up their game scoring in the home half of the fourth inning when Adeline Butzke hit a single, stole second base, went to third on a passed ball, and came in to score on a passed ball..
Heikkila put the Bluestreaks down in order in the top of the fifth inning.
Mesabi East scored five runs in the home half of the fifth inning when Natalie LaPrairie hit a single and went all the way to third when the Bluestreaks had an error in the outfield.
Livia Takanen walked and stole second base.
Kyra Skelton then came up and reached on an error and ended up coming all the way to third base on a Chisholm throwing error.
They were not done yet.
Molly House walked and the bases were cleared when Greta Levelwind blasted an RBI triple to the left field fence.
Levelwind came in to score on a wild pitch and the Giants lead was up to 6-0.
“We got a couple of hits and that was nice to see,” Zimmer said. “When you have runners on base you want to come up with some hits and we did that in that inning.”
Chisholm came up in the top of the sixth inning and Heikkila again set them down in order with a pair of strikeouts and a line drive to House, at first base.
Mesabi East closed out their scoring in the bottom of the sixth inning when LaPrairrie singled and came in to score when Alyssa Prophet hit a double.
Prophet came in to score when Butzke reached on an error.
The Bluestreaks had one last chance in the top of the seventh inning but Heikkila was still up to the task on the mound.
She got a pair of grounders to start the inning before Bluestreaks shortstop Gretta Nelson hit a single.
Heikkila set Rylee Aultman down on strikes to end the contest.
“She really tossed the ball well today,” Zimmer said.
Heikkila went seven innings, not giving up a run, striking out 10, while walking just one.
The Giants are back in action today, hosting Deer River at 4:30pm
Then they will host Two Harbors on Friday at 4:30pm
“We have a lot of games coming up and need to keep playing some solid ball,” Zimmer said. “Today was one of those games.
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