Pelican Rapids will travel to Barnesville on Tuesday night in the first round of the Section 8AA playoffs.

The Pelican Rapids Vikings started a busy week by traveling to Breckenridge to take on the Breckenridge/Wahpeton Storm.  

The Storm defeated the Vikings in the first game 20-0. Sylvia Pesch and Zayla Arrow each had a base hit and were the only baserunners for Pelican Rapids in the first game.

Zayla Arrow was the pitcher of record for the Vikings in game one.

The second game of the doubleheader saw Breckenridge/Wahpeton victorious by the score of 9-3 over Pelican Rapids. Breckenridge/Wahpeton jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning as they scored three runs on three hits and one walk in the inning.

Sylvia Pesch drew a walk to lead off the bottom of the first inning and later scored on a wild pitch to cut the Storm lead to 3-1.  

The Storm extended their lead to 7-1 by scoring four runs in the fourth inning. Pelican would answer with two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning as Claudia Gurath and Zayla Arrow collected base hits and came around to score in the inning.

Breckenridge/Wahpeton would add single runs in the fifth and sixth innings to complete the scoring at 9-3. 

 Kia Nelson pitched all seven innings while striking out six Storm batters and giving up eight earned runs to take the loss for Pelican Rapids.

Hawley travels to Pelican, wins pair

Thursday, Pelican Rapids hosted the Hawley Nuggets on a very cold and windy afternoon for softball. Hawley scored three runs in the first inning, aided by two uncharacteristic errors by Viking’s fielders.  

The Nuggets added two runs in the second and four more in the third to take a 9-0 lead.

Addison Walters worked out a walk to start the bottom of the third inning and scored on a base hit off the bat of Kia Nelson. Claudia Gurath RBI double-scored Nelson to give the Vikings the second run of the inning. Clean-up batter Zayla Arrow drew a walk and would score the fourth run of the inning on an RBI single off the bat of Ariana Villagomez to cut the Nugget lead to 9-4.

Hawley scored four more runs in the top of the fourth inning, again aided by two Pelican Rapids errors. Pesch and Nelson had back-to-back hits in the bottom of the fourth and scored on a ground out off the bat of Gurath and a double from Zayla Arrow to cut the lead to 14-6 after four innings.  

Ariana Villagomez started the bottom of the fifth inning with a double. She later would score on an RBI by Nelson. The Vikings left the bases loaded in the fifth, as they had an opportunity to cut further into the 14-7 deficit.

Hawley added one run in the top of the sixth inning for the final score of 15-7.

Zayla Arrow pitched all seven innings, and for a rare moment this season, the Pelican Rapids defense let the pitcher down with five errors in the contest.    

Hawley won the second game of the doubleheader by the score of 5-0. The Pelican bats went silent in game two as they only collected four hits in the contest, two from Zayla Arrow and one each from Gurath and Linea Thomas.

Nelson pitched all six innings giving up one earned run and striking out seven Nugget batters.

Lady Vikings split with Frazee

Pelican finished up a busy week on Friday by traveling to Frazee and splitting a doubleheader with the Hornets.

Frazee came out of the gates hitting as they scored five runs in the first inning to take a 5-0 lead.

The Vikings were able to cut the lead to 5-3 by scoring three runs in the top of the second inning. Ariana Villagomez, Linea Thomas, Addison Walters, Pesch, Nelson, and Gurath all collected base hits in the inning for Pelican.

Frazee added two runs in the third and two more in the fourth to extend their lead to 9-3.  

After walking to start the seventh inning, Claudia Gurath later scored on a walk to Ariana Villagomez. Still, Pelican Rapids was not able to push across any more runs in the inning. Pelican left eleven base runners stranded as they had plenty of opportunities but couldn’t get the key hit they needed in the first game of the doubleheader.

Nelson took the loss, as Frazee did an excellent job putting the ball in play and finding the holes between fielding in the contest.

Pelican defeated Frazee 10-5 to end a very busy week of softball for the Vikings. The Vikings got the scoring going in the first inning as Pesch and Nelson led off the game with base hits and scored on a solid single off the bat of Gurath.

Frazee answered with two runs in the top of the second inning to tie the game at 2-2. Pelican would answer right back with two runs in the bottom of the second inning as Chelsey Blakeway and Walters would score on RBI singles off the bats of Nelson and Gurath to give the lead back to the Vikings 4-2.

The Vikings extended their lead to 5-2 as Pesch scored on an RBI single off the bat of Zayla Arrow in the fourth inning.

The Hornets again would answer with two runs in the top of the fifth inning to cut the Viking lead to 5-4.

Pelican scored five runs on four hits, three walks, and one hit batter in the sixth inning to extend the lead to 10-4. Pesch, Gurath, Zayli Arrow, and Thomas collected base hits and walks to Nelson, Blakeway, and Pesch. A pitch hit Villagomez in the sixth inning.

The Hornets scored one run in the top of the seventh inning for the final score of 10-5.

Zayla Arrow pitched her best game of the season by going all seven innings and recording three strikeouts. Arrow was aided by some great defensive plays from third baseman Villagomez and shortstop Sylvia Pesch. Pelican Rapids ends the regular season with a record of 8-12.