Hot batting leads to winningest season for Minnehaha softball in over a decade

By MATTHEW DAVIS

Whether baseball of softball, getting a hit on three of ten at-bats means a successful hitter.

How about if your team had a few hitters who could get at least five out of ten?

That’s how well Minnehaha Academy’s softball team has batted this season with three batters who finished regular season play with averages of .500 or better. Sarah Kaminski went .556 for the season, and Jennifer Mrozek averaged .521 in the lead-off spot. Summer Olson went .556 in nine games played.

“They’ve gotten a lot of hits in a timely fashion,” Redhawks coach Mike DiNardo said.

Minnehaha also had a .400 club of three batters in the lineup. Gracia Gilreath hit .470; Megan Thurow went .453, and Emily Mortenson had a .442 average.

“Every girl in our lineup has the ability to get on base,” Thurow said.

Consequently, Minnehaha has shown the ability to win too with an 18-2 regular season and the first Interscholastic Metro Athletic Conference softball title. The Redhawks hit the 20-win mark for the first time since 2008-2009 when they won their first two Section 4AA tournament games on May 16.

With a .909 winning percentage, Minnehaha has enjoyed its winningest season in more than a decade. More importantly for these Redhawks, they have become the kind of team that could go to the program’s first state tournament since that 2008-2009 season. The Redhawks went 23-6 that year and lost to Hermantown in the Class AA state championship game.

Minnehaha’s current team, averaging ten runs per game, has been knocking on the door for state during the past couple years. The Redhawks made it to the final three teams in the Section 4AA tourney last year before falling to St. Anthony Village 2-1. In 2013, the Redhawks went 4-2 and came short of state in a loss to Visitation.

Many of Minnehaha’s softball players know what it takes to get to state as they also played on the Redhawks girls basketball, which recently had two straight state tournament appearances. Kaminski, Thurow and Gilreath all play significant roles for those hoops teams.

“It made things interesting for practice early in March when all the girls basketball players—there’s seven or eight on my team—weren’t available for the state tournament,” DiNardo said.

Angela Scharf, the team’s catcher, also played for the girls hoops team at state. She transitioned as well as her other teammates did from the court to the diamond. Scharf hit .297 and finished third on the team with 17 RBI.

The depth doesn’t end there either.

“We’re really getting a lot of production out of batters sixth through nine, which wasn’t always the case in previous years,” DiNardo said.

Seventh grader Kate Pryor batted .292 and had 15 RBI. Alison MacLeod had a .279 average and eleven RBI. Olivia DuBois went .214 at the plate and ran the base paths effectively. She scored 16 runs and stole five bases. Victoria DuBois batted .368 in 14 games played.

Minnehaha’s success does not stop with their battery. Thurow turned in another stellar season in the pitcher’s circle. The Northwestern-St. Paul commit had a 1.40 ERA, 181 strikeouts and ten shutouts.

Depending on how deep the Redhawks go in Section 4AA, Thurow could pitch at her future home field at Northwestern in the championship game on May 26 and fittingly lead her current team back to state.