The Section 8AA Girls Softball Tournament continued in Thief River Falls on a beautiful Wednesday Afternoon. The Hawley Nuggets had their first matchup with the Wadena-Deer Creek Wolverines, in a matchup of the two #1 Seeds. The Nuggets got on the board with a RBI Single by Leftfielder Alex Gunderjohn, in the third inning to take a 1-0 lead. Hawley then added two insurance runs in the top half of the fifth inning, with a walk to leadoff hitter Hannah Stotts, a wild pitch and then Shortstop Brooke Geffrey hit an RBI Double to score Stotts, and then Second Baseman Addi Sanvik knocked in Geffrey with a single to left field. Starter Eagan Hastings pitched a complete game, with 14-K’s to get the win. WDC had their season come to an end, with Hawley advancing in the Elimination Bracket, with a matchup against Thief River Falls. The Second game was scoreless through the first 7 innings. After TRF had their opportunity in the Top of the 8th, Hawley was able to get a leadoff Single by Emily Vettern, she got moved to 2nd, by a sacrifice by Pitcher Eagan Hastings, a groundout to 2nd, moved Vettern to 3rd and that brought up Centerfielder Sella Fleming to the plate with 1-out and a runner on third, Fleming hit a grounder to SS, the pickup was bobbled and Fleming was called Safe on a bang-bang play at First, allowing Vettern to touch Home Plate with the only run of the game and a Win for the Hawley Nuggets in 8 innings. Eagan Hasting got her 2nd win of the day, getting 11-K’s in a complete game shutout
In the Championship Semi-finals, the Defending Champs…DGF beat Menahga to get the inside track for the Section 8AA Championship. Hawley will play Menahga at 12-Noon in Frazee on Thursday, Weather permitting on KRCQ. Again the rest of the Section 8AA Tournament is being moved to Frazee, because the 3 remaining teams are in the Southern part of the Section. There will be up to 2 games in the next round of the Tournament on Thursday…IF DGF is beat in the second game on Thursday, the Section 8AA Championship would be Friday, for the right to go to the State Tournament. We should know a little after 8am on Thursday, if the Section 8AA Tournament will be played on Thursday.