NorthWood’s Madison Miller fires a pitch at Tippecanoe Valley Monday afternoon. (Photos by Mike Deak)

NAPPANEE – It was a tale of two dugouts Monday afternoon at Stauffer Park. On the NorthWood side, a lot of youth and exuberance had the Panthers upbeat while Tippecanoe Valley’s dugout needed a pick-me-up after an 11-0 NorthWood shutout in five innings.

The season opener for both softball clubs saw NorthWood jump on the board early. A pair of Valley fielding errors to open the first inning along with a walk loaded the bases for the Panthers. Grace Anglemyer got her team on the board with an RBI groundout, and two batters later, Brooklyn Troyer rapped a two-run single to put her club up 3-0.

Tippecanoe Valley’s Taylor Czichilski lays the tag on NorthWood’s Amanda Jenkins and gets the out call on Jenkins’ stolen base attempt.

Another pair of Valley errors allowed two more runs to score in the third, and Lili Lomeli smacked an RBI double to move the lead to 6-0.

Halle DeMien added a two-run double and Kennedy Hochstetler an RBI single in the winning effort. In total, the six RBIs from Troyer, Lomeli, DeMien and Hochstetler – all freshmen – made for a very happy NorthWood head coach.

“We’re a young team but we play really well together,” said NorthWood’s Mandy DeMien. “We came out ready to hit and ready to swing the bat. That’s what I challenged them to do. I wanted them to be aggressive and to get some hits with runners on base.”

DeMien was also happy with the pitching performances from starter Madison Miller and reliever Gracie Clark. Miller went three innings, allowing one hit and striking out four, including the side in the second. Clark gave up two hits, a walk and struck out two the rest of the way.

Valley’s Kayla Scott camps under a popup.

“We’ve got four games in four days and who knows with this weather, so I wanted both pitchers to get some work in today,” DeMien said. “I wanted to see both of them and get some pitches in against live batters. I thought Madison looked really good and Gracie did well, too.”

Valley’s inefficiency in the field, committing seven errors, allowed nine of NorthWood’s runs to score. Vikings head coach Daryl Shoemaker noted the hustle was there in his club’s first go-round, but the mistakes can’t happen if the team wants to compete.

“All of the girls that we have with the exception of one played with us last year or were at least on the bench,” Shoemaker said. “I guess the difference was letting three runs score in the first. I was OK, but a little worried. By the time the next inning happened and we got further behind, it fell apart. It’s just something we can’t have happen.”

Jordan Krotke, Kirstyn Yoder and Alex Gomez each had singles for Valley and Bailey Engholm drew a walk.

“We’ve always started slow early in the season in year’s past, then find a run somewhere in the season and try to maintain,” Shoemaker said. “I’d like to see us maintain some more consistency earlier, so we aren’t having to dig out of holes so quickly. Today showed that. We let a couple mistakes compound, and we just can’t have seven errors against good ballclubs.”

NorthWood (1-0) is set up for a busy week, having games this week against Fairfield, Bremen and Lakeland before heading to spring break. Valley (0-1) will take a couple weeks off before resuming April 9 at home against Triton.

NorthWood’s Gracie Clark smiles during an inning change Monday afternoon.