PREP SOFTBALL

DB 8, YME 2

GRANITE FALLS — The first four innings of Monday’s softball game between the Dawson-Boyd Blackjacks and the Yellow medicine East Sting were a far cry from how the game finished. The Blackjacks ended a four-inning run drought to start the game with a five-run fifth inning to pull away for an 8-2 victory, their first of the season.

Macy Moen and Natyah Ritter started the inning with consecutive singles. After Moen stole third, Lauren Larson singled again to drive in the go-ahead run.

Not satisfied with just a slight lead, Kadyn Perkins tripled to drive in another pair of runs and Madalyn Wente doubled to drive inn another run. Taylen Jorgenson then singled to set up an Maddie Peterson double to make the score 5-0 at the end of the inning.

Allison Estling pitched all seven innings for Dawson-Boyd, holding the Sting to two runs on six hits and a pair of walks. She struck out nine of the 27 batters she faced.

Jorgenson, Moen and Larson each hit racked up three hits on the day, including a triple for Moen. Bayli Sneller and Ella Cherveny led the Sting with two hits a piece. Snella, Cherveny and Bailey Mortenson each also hit a double on the day.

Sneller was dealing in the circle for the first three innings for YME. She struck out eight batters and allowed just one baserunner — a walk — before being relieved to start the fourth inning. Abbie Winter recorded the loss for the Sting, allowing 17 hits while striking out three batters in four innings.

Dawson-Boyd improves to 1-3 with the win while Yellow Medicine East falls to 0-5. The Blackjacks will try to keep their momentum rolling when they face off against MACCRAY in Dawson today at 4:30 p.m. while YME will try to get back on track when they host Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg at the same time.

PREP GOLF

Big South West Boys Event

REDWOOD VALLEY — Four Marshall Tigers finished in the top 10 of the six-team Big South West boys golf tournament on Monday. Still, Luverne’s strong top duo forced the teams into a tie for first in their first conference tournament of the year.

Junior Luke Ehlers and senior Drew Parsons led the Tigers tied for third place at 3-over 38. Ehlers had six pars on the day and never went more than one stroke over par on a single hole. Parsons had a single double-bogey, a 2-over on the par-4 sixth hole, but he made up for it with a birdie on the par-4 first hole.

The Tigers’ top duo was also tied with Redwood Valley’s Oliver Smith and Zachary Wilson and Pipestone Area’s Matt DeBates.

Luverne seniors Henry Hartquist and Owen Sudenga took first and second place at even-par 35 and 2-over 37 respectively. Hartquist had a pair of birdies on holes 3 and 5 but a 2-over 5 on hole 7 forced him to settle for even on the day.

Marshall and Luverne finished the tournament with 154 strokes each. Still, Marshall had the depth advantage on the day to claim first place. Jayden Manthei, the Tigers’ No. 5 golfer on the day, placed 11th out of 35 golfers on the day at 5-over 40 while Jaylen Koster was the Tigers’ No. 6 in 17th place at 6-over 41. Koster’s score tied Luverne’s No. 3 and No. 4 golfers, Tyler Arends and Zach Overgaard.

Senior Nate Panka and freshman Deacon Wing were the Tigers’ No. 3 and 4 golfers, tied for ninth place at 4-over 39. Panka had a birdie on hole 9 while Deacon had one on hole 8.

Marshall will next compete on Friday when it hosts Worthington for a dual at Marshall Golf Club. The meet is scheduled to start at 4:15 p.m.