TUCSON, ARIZ. – The Valley City State Vikings are set to play their first outdoor softball games of the season. The Vikings were 7-5 in the three weekends that they played indoors at Jamestown and Dordt University.
The Vikings open the Tucson Invitational Saturday with a doubleheader. Game one is against #18 Northwestern. The Vikings lost to the Red Raiders back on February 21
st, the last game VCSU played in Sioux Center, Iowa. After the Red Raiders, the Vikings play Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona.
This will be the 13
th meeting between Northwestern and Valley City State. The Red Raiders have won seven of the previous twelve games. Including an 8-1 win two weeks ago in Iowa. In that game, the Vikings lone run came on an
Olivia Kalbus home run. She was 2 for 3 on the day.
Bailey Leroux was 1 for 1 with a double,
Hadley Gerle was 1 for 1,
Reagan Mieras was 1 for 2, and
Kennadi Stone was 1 for 3. Northwestern College is 14-5 on the season.
This is the third meeting between the Vikings and the Eagles of ERAU. The teams have split the two previous games. Valley City State won 7-2 in Tucson in 2018 and the Eagles won 11-3 in Tucson in 2023.
The Vikings' offense has been hitting well on the season. A .333 batting average coming into this weekend.
Pascale Kihn leads the way with a .395 batting average.
Kennadi Stone tops the club with two home runs and
Reagan Mieras has a team high eleven RBI.
Jenna Decker has over half of the stolen bases thus far. She has ten steals out of the teams 19 and has only been caught once.
In the circle,
Cooper Klaahsen and
Maddy Hazelton have logged the most innings. Hazelton leads the team with three wins, three complete games, 33 1/3 innings and 38 strikeouts. Klaahsen has a team high 3.82 ERA in 22 innings of work. She has 29 strikeouts in seven appearances, all but one in relief.
