Pine River-Backus at Crosby-Ironton

Recap

After a lengthy stretch of brutal weather and many postponements, the 2022 softball season finally got underway for both the Pine River-Backus Tigers and the Crosby-Ironton Rangers on Thursday in a game was moved up a week to take advantage of a reprieve from the bad weather.

The Tigers began the season auspiciously by scoring two runs in the top of the first, but were then silenced by the Rangers’ junior pitcher Lilli Young, who settled in and fired four scoreless innings after that. On the other side, the Tigers started freshman Aliya Lewis, who made her varsity debut as the opening day starting pitcher facing an experienced C-I lineup. The Rangers got two runs across in the bottom of the first to tie it up, and then in the third, brought 9 batters to the plate and scored 5 runs, never looking back.

Crosby-Ironton (1-0) is scheduled to face Aitkin tomorrow while Pine River-Backus (0-1) travels to Mille Lacs.

PRB Top Hitters

Debren Popkes: 3-4, R, RBI, 2 SB

Tori Koering: 1-4, R

Mady Knapp: 1-1, RBI

C-I Top Hitters

Kaitlyn Landree: 3-3, BB, 2B, R, RBI

Mya Decent: 2-4, BB, 2 R, 3 RBI

Bri Miller: 0-2, 3 BB, 3 R, SB

PRB Pitching

Aliyah Lewis: 6.0 IP, 9 H, 11 R, 12 BB, 6 K

C-I Pitching

Lilli Young: 7.0 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 2 BB, 7 K