WORTHINGTON -- Haley Grimmius was unhittable and her teammates were not surprised.
“She does a great job,” said Laci Boomgarden. “She helps the team a lot.”
And that might be the understatement of the year.
Grimmius tossed a no-hitter and struck out 13 Friday night as the Worthington High girls’ fast-pitch softball team defeated Windom Area 10-0 in six innings.
The junior righthander mixed an excellent fastball with an effective changeup as the Trojans improved to 8-2 overall with the Big South Conference victory.
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Windom dropped to 7-6 overall.
“We knew this was a good Windom team coming in,” Grimmius said. “So I had to hit my spots.”
Meanwhile, the Trojans were hitting everything that Windom righthander Jenna Veenker tossed up there.
Sophie Wietzema and Presley Sieve each knocked in two runs for the Trojans, who put the game away with a six-run fourth inning that featured four hits. Wietzema had a bases-loaded single in the frame that cleared the bags when the ball eluded Windom’s center-fielder. Lauren Nelson drilled a run-scoring triple to cap the frame.
That was more than enough support for Grimmius, who struck out the side in three innings and threw just 83 pitches in the complete-game performance.
“She’s the real deal,” said WHS coach Rosalie Hayenga-Hostikka. “She’s been pitching lights-out the last few games. She makes coaching real easy when she throws the ball like that … She’s really clicking right now.”
Laci Boomgarden had two hits, including a triple, and scored two runs. She had the Trojans’ first hit with a drive to the right-center gap in the second inning.
Boomgarden wasn’t originally slated to bat, just play center-field as she was designated the “flex” player. But her coach changed that thanks to what she called a gut feeling.
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“Laci was hitting super good in warmups and I just said ‘All right, I’m going to hit my flex right away,’ ” said Hayenga-Hostikka with a smile. “It doesn’t sound like a very smart coaching thing to put it that way, but it worked out pretty good.”
No kidding.
In fact Boomgarden, who was batting eighth, and nine-hole hitter Hannah McNab combined to go 5-for-6 with three runs scored.
“Hitting is very contagious,” Hayenga-Hostikka said. “And that’s what we need. If we can get production from the bottom of the order like that, we’re going to be just fine. Up and down the lineup we did a pretty good job tonight.”
The Trojans are set to compete at a tournament in Jackson today (Saturday), with games against host JCC in the morning and another against an unbeaten Lake Crystal club later.
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Worthington 011 602 -- 10 12 1
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