SOFTBALL SEASON ENDS ON MAY 27 WITH ONE WIN AND ONE LOSS

MCC Rebels vs. Lac Qui Parle Valley The MCC Rebel Softball team was in Marshall on Saturday with their season on the line. The Rebels were in the losers bracket portion of the tournament which meant every game is an elimination game. If you win, you move on. If you lose, you go home. The Rebels were set to take on last year’s Section 3A runner-up Lac Qui Parle Valley. The Eagles were the second seed in the North half of the Section but lost a close game with Yellow Medicine East to face the Rebels. For MCC it was a great matchup.

MCC had their best hitting game of the season as they got off to a great start, especially against a quality opponent. The Rebels came to the plate in the first inning and scored 8 runs. The Rebels had 3 doubles, 3 singles, 2 walks, and a threerun home run. Abby Loosbrock hit the three-run homer in her second at-bat of the inning. Mary Lou McNab had two hits in the inning with a double and a single. The Rebels would have a second big inning in the fourth when they added five more runs to their total. Two walks and a hit by pitch helped the Rebels pull away when they were combined with a couple of hits. Morgan Winter hit a solo home run in the fifth inning and the Rebels closed out the Eagles with a two-run ground-rule double by Mary Lou McNab.

The Eagles hit pretty well against the Rebels in this game, though they only led 2-0 after the first inning. LQPV scored runs in each of the first four innings. The Eagles scored two in the first, one in the second, two in the third, and one in the fourth. Thea Schneider did make some good pitches to escape possibly bigger rallies by the Eagles, but it cost her valuable pitches on a warm afternoon. The Rebels would get the win 16-6 in six innings.

Thea Schneider picked up the win in the circle for the Rebels going the distance striking out 5 while allowing 3 earned runs on 7 hits. The Rebels had three players with 3 RBIs including Loosbrock, McNab, and Emmi Peltola. Morgan Winter and Jayda Hellewell each drove in two runs. McNab led the Rebels with 3 hits including two doubles. Loosbrock, Winter, Hellewell, and Peltola each had two hits with Loosbrock and Winter going deep. Every Rebel starter reached base one way or another in the game. With the win, the Rebels advanced to take on the Wabasso Rabbits.

MCC Rebels vs. Wabasso Rabbits The MCC softball team saw their season come to an end Saturday afternoon when they took on the Wabasso Rabbits for the second time this season. The Rabbits lost a very tough game to KMS earlier in the day and the Rabbits seemed to take out their frustrations on the Rebels. MCC was coming off their best-hitting game of the season but couldn’t duplicate that effort against the Rabbits.

The Rabbits simply took it to the Rebels from the very first pitch. The Rabbits would score nine runs in the first inning combining Rebel errors, with walks, and base hits to blow the game open. Seven of the nine runs were scored with two outs in the inning, which highlights how close the Rebels were in getting out of the inning. The Rabbits scored 8 more runs in the third inning when an error with one out snowballed into a second huge inning. The Rabbits ended the game in the fourth inning with a 17-0 win.

The Rebels didn’t have many highlights in this one, as the Rabbits took control of the game early. Thea Schneider took the loss on the circle for the Rebels but she also had 2 of the team’s six hits. That was maybe the toughest part of this game. Wabasso ended the game with 8 hits, only two more than the Rebels, but those 8 hits led to 17 runs. The Rebels’ 6 hits didn’t lead to a single run. The Rebels season was filled with ups and downs, but the team advanced further in the playoffs than they have since before Covid. The Rebels will lose some great seniors in Mary Lou McNab, Karissa Hurd, Zoey Iverson, Alyssa Boerboom, Brianna Engelkes, and student Manager Bridgette Herrig, but they return a great deal of a lineup that showed strong potential going forward.