by Scott DCamp
Sports Editor

Thief River Falls claimed the Section 8AA softball championship in decisive fashion, defeating Park Rapids Area 10-3 at Park Rapids Area High School Thursday afternoon.

The championship game appearance was the fourth consecutive for the Prowlers, who played in the Section 8AAA title game in 2016 and 2017, and the Section 8AA championship game each of the last two seasons. The Prowlers won the 8AAA title in 2017 and six of the nine starters in Thursday’s game played in the 2017 state tournament.

“This one was one of those where we got up early,” said Head Coach Carter Rogalla. “I think that was big. We had an inning get away from us a little bit, but our kids responded.”

The Panthers were coming off a 1-0 elimination game win over Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton earlier in the afternoon and it looked like they would take an early lead in the championship game. Speedy leadoff hitter Natalie Kinkel reached on an error and stole second, when number two hitter Kendra Coborn struck out.

Kinkel, who was in scoring position with one out, was thrown out stealing third during a Kaisa Coborn at bat that ended with a single up the middle that would have plated a run. Instead, Kinkel got the second out of the inning at third and clean-up hitter Kylee Pachel grounded out in a 6-4 fielder’s choice to end the inning.

Park Rapids struggled defensively in the bottom of the first. With one out in the inning, Lexi Huot reached on a dropped fly ball by Park Rapids center fielder Kendra Coborn. Camryn Schwab drew a four pitch walk from pitcher Rylie Michaelson, and Gabby Steele reached on an throwing error that scored Huot from second. Schwab and Steele moved to third and second, respectively on the throw. With two outs in the inning, senior catcher Hannah Magnusson hit a two run single to score Schwab and Steele and put the Prowlers in front 3-0.

After a scoreless top half of the second, Thief River Falls kept its foot on the gas pedal in the bottom half of the inning and came close to breaking the game wide open. Breanna Wienen picked up the first of her three hits on the day, with an infield single on a slow groundball to second. Wienen moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Eme Gunderson and scored on a single by Haylie Rogalla.

From there the Prowlers went station to station and loaded the bases on singles by Alexa Rogalla and Huot. Schwab grounded into a fielders choice that ended with a force out at the plate, and Steele grounded out to short to end the inning.

Park Rapids briefly made a game of it with a three-run third inning. Number nine hitter Taryn Arola coaxed an eight-pitch walk to open the inning and was replaced at first by Kinkel, after the Park Rapids leadoff hitter grounded into a fielder’s choice. Kendra Coborn reached on a throwing error by Alexa Rogalla who attempted to throw out Kinkel at second instead of taking the safe out at first. Rogalla’s throw ended up in short center field, but the Panthers stayed at first and second.

Kaisa Coborn singled to score Kinkel from second, with the Kaisa and Kendra Coborn ending up on second and third, respectively on the throw. With two runners in scoring position, Pachel singled to right field to score both Coborns to cut the Prowler lead to 4-3. Alexa Rogalla struck out Michaelson, and Shailyn Pachel flew out to center to end the threat.

Thief River Falls answered with four runs in the bottom of the third to push its lead to 8-3. With one out in the inning, Magnusson singled to right and Wienen hit an RBI double to center to make it 5-3. Gunderson singled to center score Wienen, with Gunderson taking second when Kendra Coborn bobbled the throw to the cutoff. With Gunderson on second, Haylie Rogalla cleared the bases on a two-run bomb to center that made it 8-3 in favor of the Prowlers.

After allowing three runs in the third, the Prowlers settled in defensively to retire 12 of the next 13 Park Rapids batters. The Panthers had just two base runners in the final four innings. Kaisa Coborn doubled to center with two outs in the fifth. Michaelson doubled to leadoff the sixth inning but was thrown out at third when she attempted to stretch a double into a triple.

Rounding out the scoring for Thief River Falls were a pair of runs by Steele and Lund in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Additional section championship and state tournament coverage will appear in the June 5 edition of The Times.

Scoring 
PRA…….. 0 0 3  0 0 0  0  -  3  5 3
TRF…… ..3 1 4   2 0 0   x  - 10 14 3
Pitching – (PRA) Riley Michaelson – L, 6 IP, 14 hits, 10 runs, 7 earned runs, 3 walks, 0 strikeouts, home run; (TRF) Alexa Rogalla – W, 7 IP, 5 hits, 3 runs, 2 earned runs, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts.
Offensive highlights – (PRA) Kaisa Coborn 3/3, double, run, RBI; Riley Michaelson 1/3, double; Natalie Kinkel 0/3, run; Kendra Coborn 0/3, run; (TRF) Breanna Wienen 3/3, double, 2 runs, 2 RBI; Eme Gunderson 2/2, run, RBI; Lexi Huot 2/4, triple, run; Haylie Rogalla 2/4, home run, run, 3 RBI.