GRANITE FALLS — The Tracy-Milroy-Balaton softball team picked up a road sweep Thursday night, beating the Panthers 10-0 in game one before holding on 6-2 in game two.

The Panthers jumped out to an early 1-0 lead and never let the Sting into the contest.

Alivia Jensen and Grace Dolan got back-to-back hits in the third inning and set up the Panthers to score three runs, extending their lead to 4-0.

TMB added three more runs and led 7-0 by the end of the sixth inning.

Panthers starting pitcher Kamryn Peterson threw a complete game shutout, allowing just four hits and kept the Sting bats at bay.

Emma Edwards hit a deep left-center field double adding to the score for the

“I was happy with how we played defensively,” TMB head coach Karl Campbell said. “We only had one error the whole game and everything looked clean. We also had some pretty good at-bats but the biggest thing was our pitchers threw strikes and played sound defense. We’ve been struggling on defense like crazy. Anytime you can put more pressure on a team by scoring runs makes the opponent play a little tighter. I was really pleased about how the girls played in game one. Now we look to refocus and get ready for game two.”

YME third baseman Hannah Stark was out with an undisclosed injury and many of YME players had to adjust to playing a different role.

“I am not going to take anything away from TMB, they’re a solid hitting team,” Sneller said.”Every one of those girls steps into the box with confidence, seeing hard and they’re not afraid. They hit solid and found a couple of gaps. As for us, we’ve had to switch things around our third baseman got injured and kids are trying new positions these last couple of games. Still trying to find out comfort zone. We saw the ball but we didn’t make any solid contact like we needed to.”

In game two, the Sting started their No. 1 pitcher, Bayli Sneller, on the mound and got off to an early 2-0 lead. Sneller’s riseball was working to give YME an early advantage.

However, the Panthers responded by scoring once in the third and five more runs over the next four innings taking a 6-2 lead after five innings.

The Panthers were without their starting shortstop and pitcher Kamryn Peterson for game two due to a back injury, but the TMB persisted as they kept the Sting scoreless in the sixth inning, keeping the score 6-2.

With YME down to its last at-bat in the top of the seventh, the Sting were able to load the bases with just one out.

Jensen threw balls in eight of her first 14 pitches in the inning putting, two on and an infield single by Kourtney Peterson loaded them up for the Sting.

The next sequence that happened was a bizarre one for an out.

YME was up at bat and, with the count at one ball two strikes, the batter lost track of the count and took off to first base by mistake. The rest of the runners took off as well and were now all in a scramble to get back safely to their respective bases. TMB tagged the runner out at third on a rundown.

“We had bases loaded and our batter wasn’t aware of her count,” Jennifer Sneller said. “She started running down to first and then all the base runners started moving. It was a massive mental error on all four of them. We need to be aware of all situations. We need to know our count as a batter, know the count of a batter on the base so we don’t get caught in a situation like that again.”

Jensen ended the game by striking out the last batter and securing the sweep in the doubleheader in a 6-2 game two victory.

“One of our best players is not in the lineup because Peterson cramped up,” Campbell said. “So it changed our lineup a bit. We started to be more patient at the plate and make her throw pitches and strikes. We weren’t even swinging this game, we were just bunting, playing small ball. We talked about making adjustments. For us to be able to do that, embrace, buy into it and win is just fantastic.”

The Sting split its home schedule with two wins over the Lakeview Lakers and two losses against Tracy-Milroy-Balaton Panthers. YME won’t have another home game until May 18th.

“After the game, we told the girls that this game is done,” Jennifer Sneller said. “We have KMS tomorrow and it is a new game. They’re going to come in with a better attitude and more confidence. We’re going to learn and grow from these games when we have a practice to talk through it. For now, we need to let it go, come out tomorrow and play our game.

The Yellow Medicine East Sting will travel to Kerkhoven to play against the Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunberg High Schoo today while the TMB Panthers will have the weekend off and play again on Monday in a doubleheader against Minneota/Canby in Minneota.

The Sting’s game starts 4:30 p.m.

The Panthers’ games start at 4:30 p.m. and 6 p.m.