NORTH MANKATO — The future looks bright for Mankato high school softball.
East seventh-grader Chloe Grams and West eighth-grader Olivia Grack staged a pitching duel in Tuesday’s Big Nine Conference game at Caswell Park. When it was over, the Cougars’ Grams had won the battle with a two-hit, 3-0 shutout. The Scarlets’ Grack was hampered by some defensive lapses as well as some baserunning mistakes.
“We were tight,” West coach Sara Tostenson said. “We seemed a little nervous. We got hurt by some mistakes on defense and we took ourselves out of some innings offensively with some over-eager baserunning.”
East jumped to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on a base hit by Ella Fugazzi and a couple of errors.
“That gave me some confidence to get ahead right away,” Grams said. “It’s always easier to pitch with a lead.”
Grams was dominant over the first three frames, giving up a double down the left-field line to Meleah Grunst in the first and walking a batter in the third. West put together an excellent opportunity in the fourth when it loaded the bases with one out, but Grams got out of it by enticing Taylor Fitzloff to line out to second and doubling-up the runner at first who had strayed too far.
“Yeah, that was a big play,” East coach Joe Madson said. “That ended a potential big inning for them.”
East added two insurance runs in the fifth. An infield single by Harper Stangl, an infield error by the Scarlets and a two-run double by Fugazzi capped the game’s scoring. Fugazzi finished 3 for 4 with a pair of RBIs.
Grams retired the final nine batters she faced to end the game. She struck out four batters, often with the use of an effective change-up on a two-strike count.
“The change-up worked well for me,” Grams said. “My rise ball was working well, too.”
Grack deserved a better fate. She allowed three unearned runs on four hits and struck out four.
“We have to clean up some things but we’ll be back,” said Tostenson, whose Scarlets dropped to 4-3. “We just have to keep improving.”
East, ranked third in Class AAA, improved to 4-1.