NEW RICHLAND &045; Last year, Erin Anderson had a standout freshman season at New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva and was named the Tribune’s Softball Player of the Year.

She’s making a strong bid to repeat.

Anderson had another stellar outing Monday as the Panthers drilled Bethlehem Academy 13-3 in a Gopher Conference game at New Richland.

Anderson pitched all five innings for the Panthers, allowing five hits and one walk. She struck out five. She also led an 11-hit offensive attack, going 3-for-4 while driving in four runs.

And she had plenty of help.

&uot;It was a good team win,&uot; said coach Wendy Schultz. &uot;We hit well again &045; we batted .423 as a team &045; and we had some nice baserunning. It was good to see the girls aggressive. We want to get down to zero or one error a game, but overall it was a good day.&uot;

Chelsea Quiram was 3-for-3, Rachel Andree 2-for-4 with one RBI. Emily Hagen and Betsy Waldhauser each had a hit and an RBI. Jenny Schroeder doubled.

Schultz said four players laid down key bunts for the Panthers &045; Quiram, Andree, Hagen and Heather Berg &045; while senior catcher Lacy Peterson played a solid all-around game.

The Panthers improved to 5-4 overall and 5-2 in the conference. They’re in second place behind the two teams they lost to, Blooming Prairie and Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton, which have one loss apiece.

The Panthers play at Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton Thursday.

BA

100

20 &045;

3

5

3

NRHEG

050

62 &045; 13 11 3

WP &045; Erin Anderson