“I was a little scared, but I had the confidence that I can do this,” Velde said of her mental approach heading into the final at-bat. “[I just felt] really happy, I’m excited.”

RTR retired each of the first two Lakeview batters in the bottom of the seventh, one of which they caught trying to stretch a double into a triple, to bring the Knights within one out of a win. Yet, Kiara Hinz kept the Lakers alive by lasering a single into left field, advancing to second and scoring on a Taylor Hinz single to tie up the ball game.

Taylor Hinz moved over to second as the Knights tried to throw out Kiara at the plate, and she got onto third via a wild pitch to stand just 60 feet away from scoring the winning run. Velde fell behind 1-2 in the count, but battled back to bring it to a full count before lining a single into center field, sending Taylor Hinz home for the game-winning run.

“One of the big things we’ve been talking about is back-to-back hits, stringing them together, and they executed,” Lakeview head coach Linnea Stibbe said of her team. “It’s something we’ve kept building on all season long. If we can put it together at the end, that’s great, it’s going to send us into the playoffs on a high note.”

Photo by Jake McNeill: The Lakeview bench reacts after Taylor Hinz crosses the plate for the game-winning run in its Wednesday' matchup against Russell-Tyler-Ruthton in Cottonwood.

Kendra Velde finished with a game-high three hits for the Lakers while Taylor and Kiara Hinz and Morgan Velde each added another pair, including a home run for Taylor. Kiara Hinz also drew Lakeview’s lone walk of the game and stole a pair of bases.

Makenna Anderson earned the win for the Lakers on the mound with a complete-game effort. She struck out 10 batters on the day, and she held the Knights to one hit with no walks over the final five innings.

“After that first inning, we talked about little adjustments. It wasn’t anything crazy, anything major, but just making those small adjustments,” Stibbe said. “And Makenna too, just dialed in her pitches, hit those outside corners, it’s the little things and they executed it.”

RTR took a commanding early lead when Paisley Thooft singled before scoring on a two-run home run by Laken Baartman. The homer was Baartman’s ninth of the season. Grace DeVries also hit a single and scored on a Daryssa Cruz single in the frame to give the Knights a 3-0 lead.

“It was good, we came out right away and got some early runs, got some baserunners, got some key hits and got the lead there a bit,” RTR head coach Darren Baartman said. “Their pitcher settled in pretty well, and our pitcher settled in. They got a few key hits late in the game, obviously chipped away at us, and they ended up coming away with a 5-4 victory, but it was two pretty evenly matched teams and that’s the way the ball goes.”

Photo by Jake McNeill: Lakeview left fielder Morgan Velde (left) slides into third base as Russell-Tyler-Ruthton third baseman Taylin Thooft attempts to apply a tag.

Taylor Hinz got a run back for the Lakers in the bottom of the first, sending a home run into left field to cut the gap to 3-1, but RTR quickly re-extended its lead when Payton Johansen reached on an error and scored on a Jaida Fricke single in the second.

Fricke pitched 6 2/3 innings for the Knights, striking out nine batters while surrendering four earned runs on nine hits and a walk.

DeVries and Baartman each reached base twice for the Knights, DeVries doing so with a pair of singles and Baartman with a homer and an intentional walk.

Lakeview got back on the scoreboard again in the fourth inning when Kendra Velde hit a leadoff single and scored on an Anderson single with two outs. Two innings later, Velde did it again with a leadoff single before scoring when Anderson reached on an error with two outs.

Lakeview caps off its regular season at 11-9 and now awaits its seeding for the South bracket of the Section 3A tournament, which will begin on Tuesday at 3 p.m.

RTR falls to 9-9 with the loss, and will look to enter the postseason above .500 after its final two regular-season games. The Knights go on the road to take on Red Rock Central/Westbrook-Walnut Grove on Thursday at 4:30 and close out the regular season against Avon (S.D.) at Augustana University in Sioux Falls, S.D. on Saturday at 2 p.m.

“We played well today, we played good ball, it’s just a matter of we didn’t come up with the key hits at times when we needed to,” coach Baartman said. “Defensively, for the most part, we played pretty well … In the grand scheme of the game, it was two pretty decent teams going at each other, two evenly matched teams, and they found a way to score more runs than we did.”

BOX SCORE

LAKEVIEW

BATTING

K. Hinz: 2-3, BB, R, 2 SB, SO; T. Hinz: 2-4 (HR), 2 RBI, 2 R, SO; K. Velde: 3-4, RBI, 2 R; M. Anderson: 1-3, RBI, SO; M. Velde: 2-3 (2B).

PITCHING

M. Anderson: W, 7 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 10 SO.

RTR

BATTING

P. Thooft: 1-3, BB, SB, SO; J. Fricke: 1-4, RBI, R; L. Baartman: 1-3 (HR), BB, 2 RBI, R, 2 SO; G. Devries: 2-3, SO; D. Cruz: 1-3, RBI; K. VanderPlaats: 0-2, HBP, 2 SO; P. Johansen: 0-3, R, SB.

PITCHING

J. Fricke: L, 6.2 IP, 9 H, 5 R, 4 ER, BB, 9 SO.