×

Minot Storm 18A drops tournament opener at home

Alex Eisen/MDN Minot Storm 18A pitcher Janie Savelkoul throws a pitch against the Grand Forks Express Friday evening during the opening round of the Junior Olympics State Fastpitch Tournament at the South Hill Softball Complex in Minot.

Hosting the Junior Olympics State Fastpitch Tournament for the first time, the Minot Storm U18 team playing in the ‘A’ division suffered an undesirable loss Friday evening on home turf to kickoff the prestigious event.

The Storm dropped an 8-3 decision to the Grand Forks Express on the Knights of Columbus field at the South Hill Softball Complex in Minot.

The opening round defeat sends Minot into the must-win consolation bracket of the double-elimination tournament.

“I felt like we could have done better today,” Storm 18A head coach Alicen Buck said. “We came out here ready to play, but this (Grand Forks) team was a little bit better than us.”

Grand Forks scored twice in the second inning — RBI triple for pitcher Kiera Bohan and Teresa Mattson brought her in — to put the pressure on Minot fairly early.

The Storm got one run back in the third inning off an error.

That miscue sparked a fire in the Express. They scored five runs over the next two innings to pull away for good.

Paige Carlson tacked on an RBI single in the fifth inning for Grand Forks to push the score out to 8-1; nearly reaching the eight-run mercy rule needed after five innings.

Dropped balls in the outfield aided the Express on a few occasions, much to the dismay of Storm starting pitcher Janie Savelkoul, who is a Mohall-Lansford-Sherwood standout.

“There should have been a lot more balls caught,” Buck said. “Hopefully, tomorrow we will come out and catch those balls.”

Minot had one final push in the seventh and final inning. Trailing 8-2, the Storm loaded the bases with no outs. The threat went by the wayside, however, as they only managed an RBI groundout.

Despite only scoring three runs, Minot was pleased with how they were swinging the bats.

“We have been struggling with our hitting all summer, so for us to be able to make good contact today was really good for us,” Storm catcher and Minot High graduate Jaycie Rostad said. “We just hit it right at them and they made the plays when they needed to.”

The Minot Storm 18A team will play two games today with the first contest starting at 9 a.m. The second game will be played at 5 p.m. if they win or a 3 p.m. start time if they lose again and drop out of the running for the championship.

Results from across the other eight divisions can be found online at minotgirlsfastpitch.com/2019-jo-state-tournament.

The tournament, which features 65 softball teams, will run through Sunday at the South Hill and North Hill softball complexes.

“This is really cool to see all these teams come out,” Rostad said. “We didn’t even have enough room with one complex and needed two complexes. So, to be able to host this and see how much this sport has grown in this state is really cool to see.”

Alex Eisen covers Minot State athletics, the Minot Minotauros and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @AEisen13.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today