Photo by Sam Thiel Minneota/Canby’s Sydney Larson fires in a pitch during game two of their doubleheader against Lakeview on Friday. The Vikings swept the Lakers 6-1 and 6-0.

MINNEOTA – The Minneota/Canby softball team continued its homestand Friday afternoon with a doubleheader sweep of Lakeview, using a combination of strong pitching and red-hot bats to take game one 6-1 before capping the day with a 6-0 shutout.

The Vikings got things started right away, scoring a pair of runs in the top of the first to take an early 2-0 lead. Lakeview would respond in the bottom half of the frame, though, getting an infield single from Leah Brusven before Kylie Hanson drew a walk and Josie Johnson brought in their first run on a sacrifice, cutting the deficit to 2-1.

Neither team would find scoring in the second before Minneota/Canby broke out the bats in the top of the third, scoring four runs. After Abby Hennen led off the inning with a walk, Katie Friehl recorded an RBI double before Emily Pohlen got another RBI double to make it 4-1. Sydney Larson and Madison Sorenson would draw back-to-back walks to load the bases before the Vikings got their final two runs of the inning on a sacrifice fly from Kaylee Johnson and an infield single from Katie Konold to push their lead to 6-1.

The Lakers would get a pair of opportunities to create scoring chances in the third and fifth innings, but couldn’t capitalize as Minneota/Canby took the opener with a 6-1 victory in five innings.

Pohlen led the way for the Vikings with a 2 for 3 day at the plate with an RBI while Friehl and Konold each added a hit and an RBI.

Brooklyn Nelson earned the victory in the circle in game one, going five innings while allowing one run on five hits and striking out one.

Hanson and Brusven led the way for the Lakers with a pair of hits each while Johnson picked up the lone RBI.

Johnson took the loss in the circle, going five innings while allowing six runs on seven hits and striking out four.

In the nightcap, neither team could get on the scoreboard to start, as the game remained scoreless in the first two innings. After Lakeview went down in the top of the third, the Vikings got the scoring started in the bottom half of the frame.

Hennen would draw a one-out walk before Pohlen reached on a fielder’s choice and advanced on a wild pitch. After Larson drew another walk, Sorenson connected for a two-run single to make it 2-0.

The Vikings continued their strong offense in the next inning, plating four more runs to extend their lead. Johnson would get things started with a leadoff single before Konold got a single and both baserunners performed a double steal to make it 3-0. After Abby Rangaard and Hennen both reached on walks to load the bases with no outs, Friehl smacked a two-run single to push M/C’s lead to 5-0. The Vikings would later get a run on a wild pitch to bring it to the 6-0 final in five innings.

Minneota/Canby coach Heidi Boerboom said both Nelson and Larson did a great job of getting out of some tough situations and felt the defense did a nice job of responding to the plays they were involved in.

“Once again, I thought our pitching was spectacular and our catcher (Hennen) did a great job,” Boerboom said. “There were a few times where we were kind of in a hole pitching but dug ourselves out of it. We minimized walks and they hit the ball a few times but our defense responded.”

Friehl and Sorenson led the way for Minneota/Canby in game two, each getting a hit and two RBI while Konold and Johnson added a pair of hits apiece.

Larson earned the victory for the Vikings in the circle, going five innings while allowing no runs on two hits and striking out seven.

Boerboom said their key on offense was their aggressive baserunning and always looking to see if they can take advantage of mistakes in the defense.

“Running aggressively. That’s one thing we’ve been talking about is that you should always look if you can get an extra base,” Boerboom said. “Sometimes you’re going to get stuck and that happened to us on one play but that’s okay, you’ve got to take chances and things are going to happen.”

Trinity Kirckof and Natasha Blomme led the way for the Lakers in game two with a hit each.

Michaela Schuster took the loss in the circle, going four innings while allowing six runs on nine hits and striking out two.

Lakeview assistant coach Lucas Christoffer said he was pleased with the team’s fielding throughout the games and felt they had chances to score, but just couldn’t take advantage.

“Overall, I think we did a better job of fielding than we have earlier this year,” Christoffer said. “We had baserunners, we just couldn’t get the clutch hits and had some of our better hitters up and it just didn’t end up the way we wanted it to.”

Lakeview (3-11) will face Yellow Medicine East on today at 1 p.m. Christoffer said the team’s attitudes have improved throughout the season and they’ve improved on the little things with each game.

“Our attitudes are better. We seem like we wanted to be here even though it was cold and we seemed prepared and ready to go,” Christoffer said. “The little things we did a little better job of picking up as well.”

Minneota/Canby (8-4) will face MACCRAY on Monday at 4:30 p.m. and Tracy-Milroy-Balaton on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. Boerboom said they’ve got to continue to play with confidence heading into those games as well as just having fun.

I think we can gain a little confidence. We have MACCRAY on Monday and TMB on Tuesday, who’s been really hot lately,” Boerboom said. “Confidence is a big thing to take into that game, but we’ve got to continue to have fun and play hard every day.”

M/C 204 00 — 6 7 4

Lake 100 00 — 1 5 2

HITTING: Minneota/Canby (Hennen 1-2, 2 runs; Friehl 1-3, 2B, RBI, run; Pohlen 2-3, 2B, RBI, 2 runs; Johnson 1-3; Konold 1-3, RBI; Rangaard 1-3); Lakeview (Imes 1-3; Brusven 2-3, run; Hanson 2-2, 2B).

PITCHING: Minneota/Canby (Nelson 5.0-5-1-0-1-1); Lakeview (Johnson 5.0-7-6-5-5-4).

Lake 000 00 — 0 2 1

M/C 002 4x — 6 9 1

HITTING: Lakeview (Kirckof 1-2; Blomme 1-2); Minneota/Canby Friehl 1-3, 2B, 2 RBI; Pohlen 1-2, run; Larson 1-2, 2B; Sorenson 1-2; Buysse 1-3; Johnson 2-2, run; Konold 2-2, run).

PITCHING: Lakeview (Schuster 4.0-9-6-6-6-2); Minneota/Canby (Larson 5.0-2-0-0-3-7).