K-W softball walks off vs. Medford

Kenzie Moore felt frustration and elation in the span of a few seconds.

Up to bat with the game knotted 3-3 in the bottom of the seventh inning with bases loaded and one out, Moore’s bat sent a ball toward shallow center field.

The look in her eyes showed that she felt she didn’t hit the ball deep enough to bring in the runner home from third base on a sacrifice fly. The shortstop ranged to her left to catch the ball with her momentum carrying her a step onto the grass.

Amber Lerfald found that to be enough of an opening to take off. Her aggressive baserunning allowed her to barrel home sliding safe as the throw home sailed over the catcher’s head for a walk-off 4-3 victory for Kenyon-Wanamingo (5-4, 4-3 Gopher) over visiting Medford (1-5, 0-4 Gopher) April 29 in Wanamingo.

“[Moore] just wants to get on base,” K-W coach Carrie Anderson said. “She was disappointed, but then she’s like ‘I got the game winner!’”

That she did.

K-W never trailed on the day. The game finished in under an hour and a half and particularly sped along through the first three innings before K-W got on the board with three runs in the fourth.

Junior third baseman Vanessa Bartel got the rally going with a one-out triple that nearly carried over the left center field fence. The Knights were finally cracking the code against senior starting pitcher Mackenzie Velishek.

Senior shortstop Ivette Mendoza followed up with a single to right field to score Bartel. Senior pitcher Josie Flom helped her cause by belting a two-out RBI triple. Flom came home on an errant throw from the outfield to third base.

Hailey Chambers got Medford going to lead off the fifth by turning a long at bat into a walk. She advanced two bases on passed balls.

Flom retired the next two batters before Ava Clark singled to shallow center field to break the shutout. That was the Tigers’ fourth hit at the time out of six total. K-W managed seven hits.

Four of the seven hits were extra for bases. The Knights were unable to capitalize on freshman catcher Chloe Donker’s one-out double.

Velishek led off the sixth with a double. Flom struck out the next two batters. Velishek’s courtesy runner stole third base. She made it home on an errant throw to third.

Chambers had Medford’s lone two-hit day. She was productive even when not getting a hit as she tied the game on a RBI force out at second base.

“Usually with us we lose it in the fifth inning, but we rallied back,” Bartel said. “We didn’t let them get a lot of runs, we kept them at three.”

Flom limited Medford to two extra-base hits in the game, a pair of doubles. She struck out 12 batters and walked two. Flom had complete control of the strike zone with 78 strikes in 114 pitches (62.7%).

“She carries our defense,” Bartel said. “We’re lucky to have her. Very lucky to have Josie.”

Velishek was even sharper with 70 strikes on 105 pitches (66.7%) to go with nine strikeouts and one walk.

K-W went down in order in the sixth. Medford did the same in the seventh.

Lerfald started the Knights’ rally with a one-out single. Freshman second baseman Anna Ostertag crushed a single and Donkers walked to load the bases for Moore.

K-W wasn’t completely satisfied with its offensive production, but it’s trending back in the right direction following a season-low run total in a 10-1 loss April 23 at Maple River.

“We’ve been working really hard on the batting, getting going,” Anderson said of her squad averaging 6.1 runs per game on the season and 6.7 in conference play. “Today was more of a slower day, which it can be up and down, but they keep working hard. A couple errors let them in. We can’t have a double error and things like that. But they kept fighting through it and didn’t shut down, so that’s important.”

Like in every previous loss this season, the Knights came back to win the next one.

“They just keep fighting,” Anderson said. “It’s cool.”

Next up for K-W is a rematch with Bethlehem Academy (7-2, 3-2 Gopher) 4:30 p.m. April 30 in Wanamingo. The game’s played after the print deadline of the May 1 edition of the Kenyon Leader.

The Knights took the first meeting 10-5 in the April 4 season opener in Faribault. Both teams are in Class 1A, Section 1.

The Cardinals’ only loss since K-W was to reigning conference champion and state heavyweight, Randolph (12-0, 7-0 Gopher). All but one of BA’s wins have come by four or more runs.

Per scores submitted on Minnesota Softball Hub by midnight April 30, Randolph leads the conference. Blooming Prairie is next at 7-1, followed by United South Central (4-1), K-W (4-3), BA (3-2), Maple River (3-3), Hayfield (3-4), Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton (2-3), Triton (2-4), New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva (2-6), Waterville-Elysian-Morristown (1-7) and Medford (0-4).

K-W returns home 4:30 p.m. April 30 vs. Bethlehem Academy. The Knights are going for the season sweep and already have the official conference win in tow over the Cardinals.

K-W is at New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva 4:30 p.m. May 2 and hosts Southland 4:30 p.m. May 6.