Photo by Jake McNeill: Minneota/Canby left fielder Emily Walker swings at a pitch during a Camden Conference softball game against Ortonville in Minneota on Wednesday. The Vikings defeated the Trojans 10-0 in five innings to extend their win streak to 12 games.

MINNEOTA — Jaylyn Jerzak hit an inside-the-park home run and a double to lead the Minneota/Canby softball team to a mercy-rule win over Ortonville on Wednesday in Camden Conference play. After staking an early lead, the Vikings pulled away with six fourth-inning runs and added another in the fifth to seal a 10-0 win.

Gretta Buysse led off the fourth inning with a single and Jerzak followed with a hard-hit ball into right field. The ball bounced all the way to the wall to score Buysse, and a throwing error by the Trojans allowed Jerzak to tag all four bases for another run and a 5-0 Minneota advantage. 

“I had two strikes on me, knew I had to do something, and I looked at [Minneota/Canby head coach] Heidi [Louwagie] and she gave me a nod, and I knew that was my confidence to hit the ball and get going,” Jerzak said of the play. “I was hoping to get at least two [bases], but then Heidi told me to keep going, so I listened.”

Courtney Antony followed up Jerzak’s four-bagger with a double into center field and Kiersyn Hulzebos drew a walk. She tried to continue advancing to second but was caught up in a pickle. As the Trojans were distracted on the first-to-second basepath, Antony ran home for one run and Hulzebos eventually beat out the pickle to get to second base. 

“[Running as a distraction so Antony could score] was the plan… I was just going to risk it to get her home and see what happened,” Hulzebos said. “I did a little bit of the splits in the middle of it, so that kind of made me nervous, but I was hoping it would work out well and it did.”

The fourth-inning rally continued when Joelle Otto doubled to score Hulzebos and Emily Walker beat out a ground-ball single to put runners on the corners with one out. Ortonville tried to pick off Otto at third as Walker stole second, but an error by the Trojans allowed Otto to score and Walker to advance to third. Walker went on to score on a Dakota Pesch sacrifice fly.

Madison Hennen threw her second consecutive complete-game shutout for the Vikings, going all five innings while striking out 13 batters. She held the Trojans hitless for the first 2 1/3 innings, striking out six of the seven batters she faced during the stretch, and limited Ortonville to two singles and no walks on the day. 

Minneota/Canby’s defense backed up Hennen well, finishing without an error. Ortonville, meanwhile, finished with four.

In addition to Jerzak tallying six total bases with a pair of RBIs, Antony finished with a double and a single for the Vikings while Kiersyn Hulzebos reached base four times on a single and three walks.

Antony, Hulzebos and Otto each safely reached base to load the bases with no outs in the bottom of the first. A Walker ground out scored Antony, but the Vikings left the other runners stranded.

Izabelle Hulzebos led off the second inning with a walk and advanced to third on a Buysse bunt. She was caught trying to go home when Buysse was stealing second, but Buysse advanced to third on the play. After Antony was hit on the foot by a pitch and stole second, Kiersyn Hulzebos beat out a ground-ball single and an error on the throw to first allowed both runners to score, bringing the Vikings’ lead to 3-0.

Jerzak led off the bottom of the fifth by reaching on a two-base error, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored the game-sealing run on an Otto ground out.

Minneota/Canby improves to 14-1 on the season and will carry a 12-game win streak into its next game, a road matchup against MACCRAY in Raymond today at 4:30 p.m.