Albert Lea softball takes 3rd at St. Clair

Published 9:18 am Monday, April 21, 2014

The Albert Lea softball team showed resiliency Saturday at the St. Clair Tournament.

The Tigers rebounded from a 7-6 loss against Byron in the first round with an 8-1 win over Triton in the second round to take third place at the four-team tournament.

St. Clair won the championship with an 11-4 win over Byron after a 2-1 win over Triton in the first round.

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In Albert Lea’s first game, Byron led 7-1, but the Tigers rallied by scoring five unanswered runs in the final two innings. Albert Lea catcher Veronica Silva started a string of hits in the sixth. She was 3-for-3 with a home run, three RBIs and a run scored.

“Silva got us jump-started,” said Albert Lea head coach Dan Harms. “Before that, the bats were quiet. We had one hit in the first, one in the second, one in the third and nothing in the fourth or fifth.”

In the seventh inning, the Tigers had a chance to take the lead with runners on second and third with one out, but they were left stranded because of a ground-out and a fly-out.

In Albert Lea’s second game, Haley Harms and Triton’s Katie Rosenau both pitched shut-outs through the third inning.

However, the Tigers found their groove at the plate in the fourth by scoring six runs.

“We carried the momentum from the end of the first game into the second game,” coach Harms said. “In the fourth inning, we lit them up with six hits. That was nice to see.”

The Tigers tacked on two more runs in the fifth to take an 8-0 lead. Triton managed to score one run in the sixth, and neither team scored in the seventh.

Harms pitched both games for Albert Lea. Against Triton, she struck out six of 29 batters and allowed eight hits, an earned run and a walk.

Megan Kortan led the Tigers at the plate by going 2-for-4 with a double and two runs scored.

Next, Albert Lea (2-3 overall, 1-2 Big Nine Conference) will host Rochester John Marshall at 5 p.m. today.