Record Breaking Season Ends for Thunder Softball

Wes Vork-NSO

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May 1

Wes Vork-NSO

Sauk Rapids – The Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College women’s softball team wrapped up their second season of play with a pair of losses in the Minnesota College Athletic Conference state tournament this past weekend.

The Thunder fell to the nation’s top ranked team, Rochester Community College, by a score of 3-2 in the first game and another of the top teams in the nation, Riverland, 5-4 to bow out of the double elimination event.

“We played well, but just didn’t get the breaks,” said Thunder coach Kerry Rodd. “We had a lot of firsts this year. We won 20 games for the first time in school history, advanced to the state tournament for the first time and we were ranked in the top 10 in the nation for over a month.”

The Thunder led top ranked Rochester 2-1 for most of the game before the Yellowjackets tied the game in the bottom of the sixth inning. Rochester then won the game in the bottom of the seventh.

“They are a good team, but I really think we were just as good and they just got the lucky break,” mentioned Rodd. “When you have two good teams playing it comes down to just a matter of who gets the break and then takes advantage of them.”

Game two action saw the Thunder fall behind early and eventually cut into the Riverland lead to make it 5-4 in the bottom of the sixth.

“I think we were just reeling following the Rochester game and we got a bit of a slow start,” Rodd commented. “We didn’t make any errors in the game we just didn’t hit the ball the way we have all year and that was tough.”

The Thunder finished with a 20-win season and will lose a number of the nations best players.

“We lose a great group of ladies who helped to establish us as a program,” Rodd explained. “We have a lot of players coming in, but it will be a tough group to replace.”

Wes Vork can be reached at wes@northlandsportsonline.com