The inaugural Northwoods League (NWL) season began over the weekend. In the first season of play, there are four teams in the league. Joining the Minot Honeybees are the Mankato Habaneros, Madison Night Mares and the La Crosse Steam.

To start the season, the La Crosse Steam faced the Madison Night Mares. The Honeybees squared off with the Habaneros. Each team is currently 1-1 across the standings with each team playing double-headers on Sunday on opening day.

The Honeybees will travel to Madison for a four game stand with the Night Mares before being home in Minot for three games against the visiting Night Mares and four more home games against the Habaneros.

The Minot Honeybees started their historic first season with a four game stand in Mankato, Minnesota, against the Habaneros with two games on Sunday and two games Monday. The two Sunday games are recapped below.

Honeybees 8, Mankato 5

The Honeybees were tied 2-2 after two innings of play and used the top of the third inning to build a four run lead that they never lost. Mankato narrowed the gap to one run when Minot added two more runs at the top of the seventh inning to win game two and tally their first win in franchise history 8-5 on the road.

Minot was 7-for-28 with two team errors in the game. Shayna Myshrall was 2-for-4 with two RBIs in the win. Cairah Curran, Trinity Gregg, Skyler Dietz, Sydney Farmer and Josie Buhr each added a hit. Jackie Albrecht pitched five innings. She allowed five runs on five hits. Kierra Fournier pitched two innings and allowed no runs on three hits.

Mankato was 8-for-28 with three team errors in the game. Madelyn Birling was 2-for-2 while Paige Zender was 2-for-3 with two RBIs in the game. Brooke Holmes, Indigo Fish, Savannah Teale and Riley Stiles each had a hit in the game. Jayme Scheck pitched three innings and allowed six runs on five hits. Sailor Hall pitched four innings and allowed two runs on two hits in relief.

Mankato 17, Honeybees 6

The Mankato Habaneros gave up two runs at the top of the first inning to the Honeybees then scored seven runs to take the lead for good in the 17-6 win.

Minot was 8-for-27 at the plate with one team error in the game. Jackie Albrecht was 2-for-3 batting with an RBI and scored two runs. Caitlyn Dannenfelzer was 2-for-4 at the plate while Trinity Gregg, Josie Buhr, Dominique Baker and Shannon Nelson each had a hit in the game.

Kierra Fournier pitched two-thirds inning and allowed six runs on five hits. Albrecht pitched two and one-third innings and allowed two runs. Jasmine Blizzard pitched two and one-third innings as well and allowed eight runs on six hits. As a group, the pitchers walked 12 batters and tallied ten strikeouts.

Mankato was 11-for-28 batting with one team error. Paige Zender was 3-for-5 at the plate with six RBIs and scored two runs. Brooke Holmes was 2-for-2 and Joscelyn Bennett was 2-for-3 in the game. Jessa Snippes pitched four and two-thirds innings and allowed six runs on seven hits in the game. Jenna Sprague pitched one and one-third innings and allowed no runs on one hit.