By Joey Hudson
The fourth seeded Northfield Raiders fell to the number one seeded Farmington Tigers on Tuesday, May 30th in Austin, Minnesota in the third round of the elimination bracket. Northfield fell in the first round of the section tournament to Lakeville North and fought back their way to being one game shy of the quarterfinal round. The Raiders conclude the season with an overall record of 16-8.
The scoring started in the first when Farmington’s Katie Klotz drilled a solo homerun over the left field fence to give the Tigers the 1-0 lead. In the bottom of the third, Klotz hammered another homerun, bringing home Peyton Boyd, who got on via a single to left, and Lexi Goring, who bunted her way on, to give Farmington a 4-0 lead.
In the top of the fourth, sophomore Olivia Hohrman ripped a fly ball double to left center and Emily Broden followed up with a single to right field to advance Hohrman to third. Junior Leah Enedy hit a hard line drive into centerfield for an RBI single to bring the game back within three. Ruby Holman continued the offense after she singled to left field and courtesy runner Grace Mostad (ran for Hohrman) scored on an error by the left fielder. With Enedy on third and Holman on second after the error, Farmington intentionally walked Courtney Graff, but with the bases loaded and two outs the Raiders were unable to further capitalize.
Lexi Goring led off the bottom of the fifth with a single on a bunt that the Raiders were unable to field. She then stole second two batters later to put herself into scoring position and Hannah Henson singled on the first pitch she saw, scoring Farmington’s fifth and final run of the game to bring the score to, 5-2.
In the top of the sixth with two outs Ruby Holman hit a ground ball to the Tigers second baseman but she was unable to make a play as Holman reached first. Courtney Graff followed up with a single on a fly ball to right, but the next Raiders batter flew out to end the inning.
After the first batter on the top of the sixth was hit by a pitch Emily Broden threw her out when trying to steal second soon after. Olivia McMahon hit a line drive single to left following that up. After the next Tigers batter popped out to second base, Peyton Boyd was hit by a pitch, but the next batter popped out to third.
Going into the top of the seventh the Raiders were down 5-2 in the win or go home game. Lucy Menssen led off the inning and popped out to shortstop. Lindsey Stanton followed up with a low line drive that was caught just above the grounds by the Farmington third baseman. With one out left the Raiders gave the bat to senior Jordyn Naumann who grounded out back to the pitcher to end the game.
The Farmington Tigers went on to defeat Owatonna, 5-2, and will now play Lakeville North for the section title and a chance at the state tournament on Thursday, June 1st.
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