NORTH ST. PAUL — Pounding out 19 hits against four different pitchers, Stillwater cruised to a 13-3 victory over Mounds View in five innings during the opening round of the Section 4AAAA tournament on Wednesday, May 22 at Stillwater Area High School.
First-round games were originally scheduled for McKnight Fields in North St. Paul, but postponed one day and moved to the higher seed due to storms on Tuesday. The Ponies made themselves right at home while scoring two runs in the bottom of the first and adding five runs each in the second and third innings to take control.
With the victory, the second-seeded Ponies (13-5 SEC, 16-5) advanced to face sixth-seeded Tartan in the semifinals of the double-elimination tourney on Thursday, May 23. The Titans (13-8) upended third-seeded North St. Paul (14-5-1) 10-9 in the quarterfinals. In the other half of the bracket, top-seeded White Bear Lake blanked St. Paul Central 10-0 and Woodbury defeated Roseville 13-3.
Maya Schroeder continued her torrid pace at the plate while helping the Ponies to their seventh straight victory. Stillwater has not lost since falling to Forest Lake 7-1 on May 3.
Schroeder led the Ponies with four hits and reached base in all five plate appearances against the Mustangs (4-17). It extended a remarkably productive run for the junior center fielder, who has reached base in 20 of her last 22 plate appearances over the last five games.
She is batting .552 with an on-base percentage of .643 this season.
Schroeder blasted a home run in her first at bat against the Mustangs, one of three long balls for the Ponies. Sarah Dollerschell doubled twice and homered while Mariah Koren added a home run for Stillwater, which also received a double each from Addison Coffey and Ava Volkmann and a triple from Megan Boser.
“We did hit well,” Ponies coach Angie Ryan said. “We did really well facing all those pitchers.”
Anna Corbid started and allowed three hits and one run in three innings for the Ponies. Cece Lamey also threw two innings and the pitchers combined for eight strikeouts.
• It was also announced this week that three players will represent Stillwater in the 35th All-Star Series on June 9 at Caswell Park in North Mankato. Seniors Anna Corbid, Addision Coffey and Sarah Dollerschell have been selected to participate in the event.
Mounds View 0 0 1 0 2 — 3 8 1
Stillwater 2 5 5 0 1 — 13 19 0
WP: Anna Corbid 3-ip, 3-h, 1-r, 1-er, 3-bb, 4-so
LP: NA
Leading hitters: St, Maya Schroeder 4x5 (HR, 3 runs, 2 RBI), Lilly Grundner 1x3, Addison Coffey 3x4 (2B, HR, 3 runs, 3 RBI), Sarah Dollerschell 3x4 (2 2B, HR, 2 runs, 4 RBI), Ava Volkmann 3x4 (2B, 2 RBI), Amber Buchkoski 1x1, Morgan Perkins 1x1, Mariah Koren 1x4 (HR, 2 runs, RBI), Megan Boser 1x3 (3B) and Autumn Lettner 1x3.
Stillwater 5, C-D Hall 3
At Oak Park Heights, the Ponies closed out the regular season with a 5-3 Suburban East Conference victory over Cretin-Derham Hall on Thursday, May 16 at Stillwater Area High School.
The victory moved Stillwater (13-5) into sole possession of second-place in the SEC standings behind conference champion and fourth-ranked Forest Lake (15-3 SEC, 15-4). Cretin-Derham Hall (12-6), Park (12-6) and White Bear Lake (12-6) finished in a three-way tie for third place.
“I mostly feel good about playing our best softball towards the end of the season,” Ponies coach Angie Ryan said. “We’ve won quite a few games in a row and we’ve been on a roll here.”
Stillwater jumped out to a fast start against the Raiders, who are ranked No. 1 in Class AAA.
Addison Coffey and Sarah Dollerschell belted back-to-back home runs in Stillwater’s three-run first inning.
“We’ve been scoring in the first innings,” Ryan said. “Obviously every team wants to do that, but that just sets the tone and starting out strong against a team like that was a big deal.”
The Raiders closed the gap with two runs in the second, but Stillwater added a run each in the fifth and sixth innings.
“We hit well early in the game and scored a couple late and just kind of held them,” Ryan said.
Cece Lamey entered in the third inning and limited the Raiders to just one unearned run on two hits and a walk with seven strikeouts. The freshman retired the first nine batters she faced.
“Cece pitched really well,” Ryan said. “They’re obviously a strong team but we just looked like the better team that day. We’re playing well at the right time and staying strong in all aspects, pitching, hitting and defense.”
Coffey finished with three RBIs in the game while Megan Boser singled and doubled for the Ponies.
C-D Hall 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 — 3 4 0
Still 3 0 0 0 1 1 x — 5 7 1
WP: Cece Lamey 5-ip, 2-h, 1-r, 0-er, 1-bb, 7-so
LP: Brooke Nesdahl 6-ip, 7-h, 5-r, 5-er, 3-bb, 6-so
Leading hitters: C-DH, Sammy Haider 1x4, Nesdahl 1x3, Hannah Yaeger 1x1 (2B) and Camille Castro 1x1 (HR, 2 RBI); St, Maya Schroeder 1x3, Addison Coffey 2x3 (HR, 3 RBI), Sarah Dollerschell 1x3 (HR), Mariah Koren 1x3 (RBI) and Megan Boser 2x3 (2B).
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