Softball: Power surge continues for Zumbrota-Mazeppa

Zumbrota-Mazeppa connected on five more home runs Tuesday in an 8-6 victory against fifth-ranked (1A) Blooming Prairie in Blooming Prairie.

The Cougars (18-2, 12-1 HVL) now have 35 home runs on the season, including 16 in the last four games. Z-M head coach Kevin Nelson said the nice weather may have something to do with the power surge.

“It was a good night hitting again,” he said. “Early in the season we hit a lot of home runs too when the weather was nice. Then, the weather got crappy. I don’t know if that slowed down our home run production but now, we’re really hitting the ball well.”

The Cougars tallied 11 hits and got home runs from five different players in the win.

Z-M’s Lydia Wagner was 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored, Megan Nelson went 2-for-4 with a double, a home run and an RBI and Carley Henning was 1-for-3 with a home run and two runs scored. Amber Jentsch finished 1-for-4 with a home run and three RBI, Hailey Dykes was 1-for-3 with a home run and Morgan Olson went 1-for-3 with a home run.

Olson pitched the final three innings for the Cougars, allowing three hits and zero runs while striking out four to pick up the victory.

Tricia DeBoer finished 3-for-4 with two runs scored and Jenna Krell went 2-for-2 with a triple and three RBI to lead Blooming Prairie.

Blooming Prairie grabbed a 5-1 lead in the second inning and led 6-1 after the fourth inning but Z-M tallied five runs in the fifth inning to tie the game and added two more in the seventh.

The second-seeded Cougars will face seventh-seeded Pine Island Thursday in the first round of the Section 1AA West Subsection in Zumbrota.

Tags: sports, prep, softball, zumbrota, mazeppa