Minot High’s Taryn Dalton singles during the fourth inning of a doubleheader against Bismarck Legacy on Friday, May 1, at Scheels South Hill Complex. Dalton went 1-for-3 with two RBIs and a run scored in the nightcap.

The Minot High softball team had any number of reasons to pack it in during the final few innings of its doubleheader against Bismarck Legacy.

The Majettes had just been shut out in the opener in which they were an inning away from being on the wrong end of a perfect game and had conceded the first six runs in the first two innings of the finale.

But the youthful Majettes kept fighting and climbed out of a large deficit, pulling even with a six-run fourth. Ultimately, the Sabers would score the final four runs over the last three innings to come away with a 10-6 victory to complete the doubleheader sweep on Friday, May 1, at Scheels South Hill Complex. Legacy won the opener 13-0 in five innings.

“We talk about never quitting and just keep going,” Minot High coach Gerard Cederstrom said. “You never know when something’s going to break. Even in the first game, we didn’t have anything break for us, but we still fought. We still played hard. We make mistakes and we know that, but that’s our mantra is to play hard because you never know what’s going to happen.”

Despite being 18 games into the season, the Majettes have rarely played a game decided by fewer than 10 runs. They have been on both sides of lopsided contests, sporting a 5-8 record in such games including Friday’s finale.

The Majettes didn’t wait anywhere near as long to record their first hit of the game in the nightcap as they did in the opener, where they were hitless through four innings. Grace Burdick singled with one out in the bottom of the first for Minot High’s first baserunner. However, the Majettes already found themselves trailing 5-0 by the point.

Legacy recorded three hits and drew three walks to plate five runs in the opening frame. Riley Ingemansen drove in the game’s first run on an RBI single to center and Borseth plated two with a single to left. Priscilla Taken Alive rounded out the scoring in the inning with a two-run double. The final four runs of the inning came with two outs.

Trailing 6-0 entering the fourth, Minot High came to life, rallying all the way back to pull even. The Majettes recorded six hits in the inning after having just two through the first eight frames of the doubleheader.

Bella Conklin got the Majettes on the scoreboard with a two-run double, plating Daysi Alm and Darby Mowbray. Taryn Dalton followed with a pair of RBIs on a single to left. Burdick and Alm delivered back-to-back RBI singles with two outs to tie the game.

“We adjusted to the speed of the pitcher and fixed the things we were trying to work on,” Conklin said.

Kyen Haggin reclaimed the lead for the Sabers with an RBI double in the fifth. Legacy would go on to score two runs in the sixth and another in the seventh to complete the sweep.

“We expect Minot High to respond,” Legacy coach Luke Elgie said. “That’s a program that has had a lot of success. Gerard knows what he’s doing. They’re going to respond and we had to be ready for that response and we had to respond ourselves.”

Alm and Burdick each had multi-hit nights, while Conklin and Dalton each recorded two RBIs. The Majettes finished with eight hits in the nightcap.

In the opener, Rawling Borseth looked like the ace of Legacy’s pitching staff that she has been all season. Borseth entered Friday’s doubleheader with a team-leading 3.62 ERA and 62 strikeouts in 40 2/3 innings in the circle.

She was nearly perfect against the Majettes (8-10 overall, 4-10 WDA) in the opener, not allowing a baserunner through the first four innings of the mercy-rule shortened contest. Borseth retired the first 12 batters she faced in order before Mowbray broke up her perfect game with a leadoff double to center field in the fifth inning.

“It was in the back of my mind in the fifth that they hadn’t had a baserunner, but you never want to say anything,” Elgie said. “Very proud of her. She’s a girl that works hard at her craft and she doesn’t need to get lucky. She’s earned that. She’s been our ace. She’s thrown a lot of innings for us and we’re glad we have her.”

Mowbray advanced to third on a ground out off the bat of Fisher Anderson, but Borseth earned the complete-game shutout by striking out Layla Dosch and getting Conklin to line out to third to end the game.

“I love it when teams are throwing their best at us,” Cederstrom said. “We see what we have to do and it helps us go back and work on it. These kids are hungry. In practice, they work on things, they change things. We just don’t have enough time to make the correct change. We don’t have enough reps. It’s all about reps and they’re making changes. They just have to keep making the change until it feels natural.”

Borseth struck out eight and didn’t walk a batter. She only needed 61 pitches to get through five innings of work, throwing 47 for strikes to record her team-best fifth win of the season. In the process, Borseth lowered her ERA to 3.22.

“My rise ball and my fastball were working really well for me today,” Borseth said. “I’m pretty proud about that.”

Borseth didn’t need 13 runs of support, but she wasn’t complaining. Kyen Haggin provided a bulk of that support, recording five RBIs. Haggin came into the game without a home run this season, but launched two in the opener. The eighth grader’s first varsity homer put the Sabers on the board in the second, connecting on a three-run home run on a 2-1 pitch from Fisher Anderson that cleared the center field wall, scoring Rawni Roemmich and Borseth.

“It was pretty exciting,” Haggin said. “It felt really nice that the girls were excited.”

Haggin added a two-run shot in the top of the fifth to put Legacy ahead 10-0. Haggin finished 2-for-3 and was one of four Sabers with multiple hits.

“She hits the ball hard all the time in practice, so we knew it was only a matter of time,” Elgie said. “She had some great swings today and saw the ball well.”

Legacy (12-6, 10-4) broke the game open with a five-run third to build an 8-0 advantage. The first four batters in the inning all singled. Paisley Lessard and Roemmich each recorded an RBI on their hits and Taken Alive plated two with a double to left field.

The Sabers tacked on five more runs in the fifth and finished with 13 hits for the game. Nine of the 10 batters Legacy used recorded a hit and seven scored runs. Legacy had five extra-base hits.

The shutout victory was Legacy’s first of the season, while the shutout loss was Minot High’s third.

Minot High hosts Bismarck High on Tuesday, May 5, at Scheels South Hill Complex at 4:30 p.m.