Other than Kaitlyn Flowers’ third home run of the season and a gale-force wind that whipped up towering dust plumes, Nicollet 12, Cleveland 2 in five innings at Caswell Park on Thursday wasn’t much for the Clippers to snapchat about.
It didn’t help the Clipper cause that head coach April Thompson had to backfill three starting positions. Eighth grader Natalie Flowers, in her first varsity game, started in left field. Ava Kluntz started in right field, and Kiya Sohn started at third base and moved to centerfield when Brooke Bosse took over for starting pitcher Delaney Thompson in the fifth.
None of the young players made an error though, but with just five hits, the Clipper bats were mostly set to silent mode.
“We had to put players in different spots. The lineup had to be different,” said coach Thompson.
Attempting to avenge their two earlier losses to the Raiders, the Clippers got off to a good start. Thompson led off the first with a single, advanced to second on a passed ball and to third on a Keira Schipper ground out before scoring on a Flowers single.
The Raiders equaled the run in the bottom of the same inning on a walk, a passed ball and an RBI single.
With Flowers’ homer in the third, the Clippers took a brief 2-1 lead, but it was all Nicollet the rest of the way. Again responding right away, the Raiders took a 3-2 lead on a walk and a wind-aided two-run homer.
With a single, a sacrifice bunt, a fielder’s choice for an RBI, an RBI single, a hit batter and a three-run homer, the Raiders put up five more runs in the fourth for a comfortable 8-2 advantage.
They effected the 10-run rule in the fifth after a pair of singles and a walk to load the bases, an RBI walk, an RBI single and, with two outs, a two-RBI single.
With a homer and a single and two RBIs, Flowers led the offense. Thompson had two singles. Taylor Wolf hit a line drive single to center field in the fourth. The Clippers struck out six times, walked once and left five on base.
Thompson tossed the first four innings. She allowed six hits and four walks while beaning one, striking out eight and marooning five on base. Bosse faced eight batters in the fifth. She allowed four hits and two walks. The Clippers committed two errors, but all dozen of the Raider runs were earned. The Raiders made one error.
With Martin County West and Madelia playing, the game was part of the Valley Conference Showcase tournament. New Ulm Cathedral crossed over from the Tomahawk side of the Tomahawk-Valley Conference and beat MCW 11-0 while Alden-Conger/Glenville-Emmons came from the Southwest Conference and fell 16-1 to Madelia.
Conference awards
Afterwards, Tomahawk-Valley Conference award winners from the Valley side were recognized.
For the Clippers, Thompson and Schipper were All-Conference while Flowers and Hahn were All-Conference Honorable Mentions.
Thompson is leading the Clippers in batting average (.400) and hits (26). She leads the Clippers in steals with 11. In the circle, she has 14 wins and 175 strikeouts.
Schipper is batting .377 and has 23 hits. She leads the team in RBIs with 24. Behind the plate, she has caught five runners stealing.
Flowers has a .361 batting average. She has 22 hits and is tied with Thompson with seven doubles, the most for the Clippers. She leads the team in homers. As a shortstop, she has an .860 fielding percentage.
Hahn has a .362 batting average and 17 hits. She has 10 stolen bases. She started the year in center field but moved to third base a few weeks ago. Combined, she has an .818 fielding percentage with only four errors.
Section play starts this week
Seeded fourth in Section 2A, the Clippers were to take on 13th-ranked Alden-Conger/Glenville-Emmons in Cleveland today, but rain postponed that game until tomorrow at 3:00.
USC is rated one in the section and is in the Clippers half. On the other side are second-seeded NUC and third-seeded Martin County West. The Clippers beat Cathedral and split with Valley Conference winner MCW.
The Clippers easily beat AC/GE on May 12 but fell 11-0 to USC. Riding the arm of its star pitcher, the Rebels are 19-0 and have only given up five runs all season.
The winner of Cleveland-AC/GE takes on the winner of fifth-ranked Sleepy Eye vs 12-ranked Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s on the field of the high seed on Thursday. The loser is eliminated. The loser of the second-round game heads to the elimination bracket. All third-round and fourth-round games are at Caswell on Saturday.
Above: Keira Schipper (left) and Delaney Thompson (right) were All Tomahawk-Valley Conference selections. Kaitlyn Flowers in the middle along with Ava Hahn (missing from photo) were Honorable Mentions.
