Ryan Ladika/MDN Paige Ackerman (9) delivers a pitch early in the first game of the Majettes' Friday doubleheader.

The Minot High Majettes returned to the softball diamond for the first time in almost two calendar years Friday afternoon, kicking off their season with a split of their Opening Day doubleheader against the West Fargo Packers. Minot, a relatively young team entering the 2021 season with only three players returning from the 2019 campaign, walked off the Packers in the bottom of the eighth inning 6-5 thanks to heroics off the bench from Kirsten Galloway, but dropped game two by a 7-3 final score.

The last time the Majettes saw the field, Paige Ackerman got the nod in the circle for the Western Dakota Association Qualifier May 25, 2019. She allowed four runs on 12 hits in a 7-4 win in the season finale, and current Minot State Beavers catcher Jaycie Rostad drove in a run during a 1-for-2 performance. Minot completed the 2019 season with a 21-15 overall record and 11 wins in 18 conference games within the WDA.

685 days later, it was Ackerman who again led the Majettes onto the field at Minot’s South Hill Softball Complex and worked a scoreless top of the first inning in front of a modest crowd that only grew stronger as the hours passed.

Ackerman dispatched of the Packers in the top of the first inning with three flyouts amid a two-out double by Ashlyn Diemert, and tossed a clean second inning to match the first two scoreless frames authored by West Fargo starter Emma Johnson.

The second time through the lineup proved lucrative for both squads, as the two lineups manufactured three total runs in the third inning. A leadoff walk issued by Ackerman came around to score on an RBI double from West Fargo leadoff hitter Mara Lick. The Packers managed another single in the frame, but the Majettes starter induced a pair of flyouts to limit the damage.

Minot drew up a response in the bottom half of the inning, taking a one-run lead when a leadoff walk issued to Reese Rice and a single by Taylee Hertz both came around to score, putting Ackerman back on the plus side.

Ackerman bounced back from the third frame with a scoreless fourth, working out of a bases-loaded situation with only one out in the process. With Emma Johnson on third, Abby Carlson on first and Aubrey Finn on first, Ackerman was the beneficiary of a comebacker right to the mound. She flipped the ball to her catcher, Hertz, and the Majettes backstop fired to first to complete the 1-2-3 double play.

Following another Packers run in the fifth to tie the score at two, Minot struck for a two-spot in the bottom of the fifth inning. Rice strode back to the dish with one out and demolished a Johnson offering over the fence for Minot’s first long ball of the season. Ackerman later singled and came around to score on an error by center fielder Mara Lick to give the home nine a 4-2 lead through five.

The two squads traded tallies in the sixth before the Packers rallied for two more runs off Ackerman in the top of the seventh to eventually force extra innings.

After Ackerman tossed a clean eighth inning, Minot put a rally together in the bottom of the frame. Cierra Erickson led off the inning with a single and was replaced for courtesy runner Taylyn Cope. Aynzlee Mosser advanced Cope to second on a sacrifice bunt, and head coach Gerard Cederstrom later turned to Kirsten Galloway off the bench with a runner in scoring position and two outs.

Galloway delivered in the biggest moment of the game, ripping a single up the middle. Cope dashed around third and touched home plate safely, propelling Minot to a thrilling extra-innings victory in the season opener.

The Majettes got off to a hot start behind Galloway, now in the circle, in the doubleheader’s second contest as well. Rice, Erickson and Ackerman began the first, second and third innings, respectively, with solo home runs, as Minot’s power hitting only improved as the night aged.

In the circle, Galloway settled in nicely for the first half of the contest after allowing two first-inning runs. With the first two on in the second, she snared a line drive in her direction off Lick’s bat and doubled Kaitlyn Kackman off first base en route to a scoreless second.

Galloway proved more effective generating swings and misses, striking out seven hitters to Ackerman’s two, but ran into trouble in the top of the fifth inning. Sophie Ochocki crushed an offering over the center field fence to tie the game at three runs apiece, and shaky Majettes defense paved way for three more runs in the frame.

The Minot offense was stifled following its three solo shots and could not muster anything more against Packers starter Grace Fleming despite putting a threat together in the bottom of the seventh. West Fargo added a seventh score in the seventh and salvaged a split of the doubleheader by a 7-3 score in the nightcap.

The Majettes will continue their non-conference schedule Saturday morning, when West Fargo Sheyenne makes its way to the Magic City. First pitch is scheduled for 10 a.m.