New Prague’s indoor softball team is off to a fast start with a pair of important wins and two big games this week.
The Trojans, 2-0, defeated their longtime rivals from Lakeville-Farmington-Burnsville Wednesday, April 8, in New Prague and then thumped Minnetonka-Wayzata, April 13, at Minnetonka. Yesterday, Wednesday, April 15, after the newspaper’s print deadline, New Prague faced Shakopee-Prior Lake-ChaskaChanhassen. Today, Thursday, April 16, 4:30 p.m., NP travels to Rosemount to take on Dakota United. The Hawks are NP’s top rival for an automatic bid to the state tournament in conference. Monday, April 20, 4:30 p.m., the Trojans will host Robbinsdale/ Hopkins/Mound-Westonka.
“Shakopee is really improved and Dakota United is really good,” NP coach Jeremy Kalal said.
New Prague 20, Minnetonka-Wayzata 1 The Trojans scored five times in all four innings of the Monday, April 13, contest and made sure their reserves enjoyed well-deserved playing time.
Junior Piper Cooke led the reserves with a pair of hits in the win. Seventh-grader Curtis Lund, eighth-grader Marykaylee Tiede, seventh-grader Nathan Swenson and seventh-grader Ian Drewitz all had hits for the Trojans. As a team, New Prague pounded out over 20 hits and played solid defense.
Trojans 12, Lakeville-Burnsville-Farmington 9 Ending the game with a triple play, the Trojans battled back from an early deficit in the April 8 contest to claim the win over a fierce rival.
The Blazin’ Cats took advantage of errors for an early 5-0 lead in the game before the Trojans’ offense and defense kicked into gear. Thanks to aggressive baserunning, NP tied the game and took the lead thanks to five RBI from Logan Bermel, four RBI from Graysen Flaherty and three RBI from Nikkos Patrin.
The Blazin’ Cats rallied late. Outfielder Brock Kocina caught a fly ball with runners on the move. Kocina threw the ball to second baseman Brady Nelson who tagged the base and relayed the throw to Patrin at first for the game-ending out.