Thunder Open Season With Two Triple-Headers

Mar 30

Wes Vork-NSO

The Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College women’s softball team has opened the season with back-to-back triple headers at the Rosemount Dome in Rosemount, Minnesota. The Thunder have gone 1-5 against top quality competition so far this season.

“We have been close in all the games except one and that was against St. Thomas’ junior varsity and they are one of the elite four-year DIII programs in the country,” commented Coach Kerry Rodd. “It has been a big-time learning experience thus far.”

The Thunder opened last Thursday with a 10-6 loss to Hibbing, a 10-2 win over Vermilion and a 6-3 loss to Itasca.

“All of those were tight games,” Rodd said. “In the game against Hibbing the players were really uptight because we hadn’t played yet and they gave up six unearned runs in the first inning and then settled in to play just fine.”

The win for the Thunder came against Vermilion with Cromwell’s Kalee Harp pitching her team to the victory.

“Kalee kept the ball on the outside corner and never let them pull the ball,” explained Rodd. “We were happy with what she accomplished.”

The opening week games took place without the Thunder’s top pitcher Katie Youngberg of Moose Lake-Willow River who was attending to family obligations. Youngberg was able to make the trip yesterday to the Dome and pitched a stellar game in a 3-1 loss to Ridgewater one of the nation’s top teams.

“That was a great game and Katie pitched very well despite having very little sleep,” remarked Rodd. “Ridgewater is a top team year in and year out and I thought we played our best game of the season at that point.”

Unfortunately the Thunder then took on the junior varsity of St. Thomas which is a perennial power at the DIII four-year level and fell 14-2.

“They are just plain good,” mentioned Rodd. “Their coaching is excellent, they do everything right and they are serious about their softball. I wish we could have given them a better game, but we suffered an injury to one of our pitchers and that put us in a bind.”

In their final game of the day the Thunder faced Bottineau, North Dakota and lost 17-15.

“That was as weird a game as any I’ve ever been a part of,” Rodd suggested. “Harp injured her knee early in the game, we could pitch our number two pitcher because of the injury she had and Katie was just dead tired. We ended up throwing Anna Engelmeier, our centerfielder, just so we didn’t injure Katie.”

Amazingly the Thunder rallied from a 17-0 deficit to score 15 runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to lose 17-15.

“They had their top pitcher still in the game and we ended up scoring 8 runs off her without an out,” recalled Rodd. “Our bats just came alive and we rolled through the line up 2 1/2 times before they got an out.”

Bottineau went through three pitchers in the bottom of the inning and played their starters as they tried to stop the rally from the pesky Thunder.

“That was just a bizarre inning,” Rodd said. “We just started bashing the ball all over the field and we ended up having a chance to win the game in the last inning.”

The game ended after the fifth inning due to time constraints.

“I am not so sure we wouldn’t have won the game if the time hadn’t run out,” stated Rodd. “I am glad to see that the team didn’t just roll over and die. They kept fighting and finally got the bats started although it was a bit late.”

The Thunder will play another triple header on Friday in Rosemount.

Wes Vork can be reached at wes@northlandsportsonline.com