Falls leads early, wins big in softball rivalry
It was shorts weather Friday for International Falls’ softball team and also a nice day to score several runs at Troy Janzen Field.
The Broncos took an early lead en route to a 13-2 road victory over Littlefork-Big Falls, which had entered the contest with a seven-game winning streak.
The win by the Section 7AA team over its Section 7A rival nearby avenged last season’s loss to the Vikings.
The Broncos only went scoreless in the top of the fifth as they tallied 15 hits over seven innings.
“It’s one of these games where we hit the ball from the start of the game,” said Falls head coach Kevin Gordon. “Everyone on the team chipped in in the hitting department.”
Morgan Bruess paced the Broncos’ offense with three hits while others added a pair.
Falls advanced runners on multiple-base hits and the so-called “small ball” method when L-BF had trouble fielding bunts.
“We made way too many mistakes,” said Vikings head coach Mike Imhof, who also noted the team found itself out of the game after the third inning when trailing 6-0.
The Broncos loaded the bases in the third with a pair of walks and a bunt before Anna Ringhofer singled to drive in two runs and record the third consecutive two-run inning to start the contest.
L-BF could only generate four hits on the game.
Winning pitcher Amanda Hofius, who tripled at the plate, also recorded eight strikeouts, though eight Viking batters got free passes on base — five on walks and three others hit by a pitch.
L-BF had several scoring opportunities it was unable to capitalize on, such as leaving the bases loaded in the fifth inning, as it took until the bottom of the sixth before the Vikings finally scored.
The Broncos had their largest scoring assault in the seventh inning as nine batters went to the plate while tallying four runs.
Courtney Pfeifer pitched all seven innings for the Vikings.
Falls 2-2-2 1-0-2 4 — 13
L-BF 0-0-0 0-0-1 1 — 2
WP: Amanda Hofius;
LP: Courtney Pfeifer
