Holy Angels, Kennedy softball off to strong starts

Both teams post crooked offensive numbers while limiting damage in the circle

After a 7-0 start to the season, Holy Angels fastpitch softball took its first loss of the season in a 6-5 loss at St. Anthony Village, a fellow state entrant from last spring and fellow Tri-Metro Conference favorite.

A pitcher’s duel carried through five innings as AHA’s Autumn Johnson and St. Anthony’s Stella Kiemele did their part as the Stars led 2-1 going into the sixth inning.

The Huskies made AHA pay for two walks to start the inning followed by a single and fielder’s choice helped the home team add two runs. They added two more runs before the Stars tagged out Josie Bogucki trying to reach second base to get out of the inning.

After going down in order in the sixth inning, the Stars returned to the field where St. Anthony made it a 6-2 lead on an RBI single to center.

Holy Angels began its final rally with singles from Autumn Johnson and Evelyn Jastrow before Anja Anderson smacked a double to left field to plate one run. Anderson went 4-for-4 with a pair of doubles and drove in three runs, scoring twice.

Jastrow went 3-for-4 also lacing a pair of doubles.

Zoe Rimstad’s ground out to first base allowed Johnson to score and Anderson to advance to third base. A ground out and line out stranded the tying run at third base.

The second game of the week happened to be the first shutout for the Stars who walked off Lincoln Field with an 8-0 win over DeLaSalle on April 23.

Holy Angels sent Johnson to the circle as she held the Islanders in check, allowing two hits with one walk over seven innings. She struck out five batters. At the plate, Johnson continued to lead by example in the leadoff spot going 3-for-4 with two doubles.

Anderson had a double and drove in four more runs as the Stars scored seven times in the second inning to put the game out of reach early. AHA brought 11 batters to the plate and came through with three singles, two doubles and three walks.

Johnson struck out seven Visitation batters in a 5-2 win on April 22.

Anderson went 2-for-2 drawing one walk, driving in two runs, and scoring twice. Autumn Johnson and Brittany Johnson each went 2-for-3.

Holy Angels closed out the previous week with a 25-2 win over Fridley/Columbia Heights in a game that took four innings to finish as the Stars put up 15 runs in the third inning.

Ryli Kendrick went 2-for-4 with a home run and triple while Sophie Theis and Jastrow each had four hits. Jastrow drove in six runs and scored three times and while pitching allowed two runs on three hits with four strikeouts.

The day before, Holy Angels picked up a 6-5 win over Minnetonka which included a home run by Kendrick in the bottom of the second inning to tie the game at 3-3.

Minnetonka’s Kennedy Hedrick and Liz Harrison went yard in the top half of the inning in what looked to be a shootout before both pitchers settled in.

The Stars took a 6-3 lead in the third inning behind leadoff singles by Anderson and Rimstad.

Anderson scored on a Brittany Johnson ground ball up the middle to make it 4-3. Jastrow brought home Rimstad with a sac fly to center field to make it 5-3 and Anna Delsing made it 6-3 with a liner to right field to score Brittany Johnson.

Autumn Johnson scattered five runs with nine hits and one walk over seven innings. She struck out six Skippers.

Kennedy off to a 4-1 start

After opening the season with a 10-0 loss to DeLaSalle, Kennedy has settled in nicely with four wins in as many days to sit at 4-1.

In three of the wins, Kennedy busted out the bats for 40 runs in wins over Minneapolis Southwest, St. Anthony Village and Fridley/Columbia Heights.

The Eagles capped off last week with an 8-0 shutout win at Robbinsdale Cooper on Thursday as Noelia Fiero and Maya Skibbie combined for 11 strikeouts and two hits over seven innings. Fiero needed 72 pitches to get through 4 2/3 innings before Skibbie, an eighth-grader, needed just 14 pitches to get four outs to wrap up the dominant win.

At the plate, Emily Spencer went 4-for-4 with a trio of doubles, driving in three runs.

Caroline Keith brought in a pair of runs while going 2-for-4 while Katie Edmonds and Sasha Nicholson each had a double. Emma Skibbie also went 2-for-4 while Maya Skibbie scored twice as did Allie Sheehan.

In a 14-1 win over Fridley, Kennedy’s top three batters in the order grabbed two hits each in Sheehan, Edmonds, and Fierro while driving in seven runs. Sheehan had a pair of triples and brought in four runs while scoring twice. Edmonds drew a pair of walks and scored three times and Fierro had a double and knocked in three more runs.

Spencer went 1-for-1 with two walks scoring twice.

Ava Taylor also went 2-for-2 with a walk scoring twice as the Eagles rallied to score 11 runs in the fourth inning.

Emma Skibbie led the charge inside the pitching circle allowing one hit over four shutout innings. She struck out five batters before eighth graders Maya Skibbie and Elena Perez worked the final inning.

Perhaps the most impressive win of the season to this point was Kennedy’s 13-8 win at St. Anthony on Tuesday.

The Huskies opened up a 6-0 lead in the first inning but Kennedy responded with an 11-run rally in the fourth inning which the home team could not respond to.

Kennedy out-hit St. Anthony 11-10 with multi-hit games from Sheehan, Emma Skibbie, Keith and a 3-for-4 performance from Nicholson. Keith put the visitors on the scoreboard in the second inning by bringing in Perez with a two-out triple to right field to make it 6-1.

The big fourth inning began with singles from Spencer and Nicholson before Taylor reached on an error to load the bases for Keith.

Keith connected on a two-run line drive to left field to bring in both base runners. Walks kept the bases loaded for Sheehan whose single kept the hit parade going. In all the Eagles sent 15 batters to the plate with six singles and five walks.

Emma Skibbie and Fierro combined to strike out 13 batters with Fierro earning the win in relief going four innings. She allowed two hits and two walks without allowing a run.

One day earlier, Kennedy scored in each inning of a 13-1 final score against Minneapolis Southwest which went six innings.

Edmonds went 3-for-3 in the leadoff spot while Spencer, Emma Skibbie and Keith each had two hits. Spencer and Edmonds legged out extra-base hits for the Eagles to help Fierro who scattered three hits and one unearned run across six innings. She struck out nine batters and issued one walk for the complete game.