Thunder Softball Get Four Wins Move Up Nationally

Chris Shevich-NSO

Apr 10

Wes Vork-NSO

The Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College women’s softball team has stormed to a national #4 ranking and on Thursday and Friday they also rolled to 4 straight wins over Vermillion Community College and Rainy River Community College.

Thursday the Thunder pounded Vermillion 8-0 and 24-1 as Joanna Vellekoop and Steph Engelmeier picked up the pitching wins. Natosha Rohloff was the hitting star as she pounded out a 7-for-7 effort on the day which included 9 RBI’s as well as a home run, a triple and a pair of doubles. Stacie Miller was also 2-for-2 in game one, while Leanne Gittings was 4-for-5 in game two and she also added a home run.

Friday the Thunder faced Rainy River and they came away with 15-7 and 7-2 wins.

“In the first game we were down 7-5 at one point, but we put together a strong finish,” said Kerry Rodd coach of the Thunder. “It wasn’t a pretty win, and we struggled in a couple of innings with our defense, but we got onto a nice roll at the end of the game.”

Steph Engelmeier pitched the first game win and is now 6-0 on the season, while Miller laced out 4 hits and Rohloff pounded another home run along with 2 hits in the game.

Joanna Vellekoop picked up the pitching win in the second game victory and in doing so she also notched 9 strike outs.

“I’ve told out pitchers all season long that they just need to keep things close for our hitters,” commented Rodd. “We feel we have enough hitting that sometime in the game we can break loose and win it if it is close at the end.”

Miller went 3-for-4 in game two and both Steph Saylor and Engelmeier added a pair of hits each

Wes Vork can be reached at wes@northlandsportsonline.com