Adapted team tops South Suburban

The New Prague Trojan adapted softball team split a pair of games last week, defeating South Suburban and losing to Burnsville/Farmington/ Lakeville. The team, which includes players from Tri-City United, Belle Plaine and Jordan schools, is 2-3 on the season.

The Trojans’ Wednesday, April 25, game against St. Paul Humboldt has been cancelled. The team will play at Dakota United, at Eastview High school, on Monday, April 30, and face Chanhassen/Chaska/Prior Lake/Shakopee on Wednesday, May 2, at Prior Lake High School.

Trojans 19, Jets 15 In an offensive battle that wasn’t decided until the final inning, New Prague prevailed in its game against the South Suburban Jets, using a five-run sixth inning to secure a 19-15 win.

The two teams traded the lead throughout the game. Each team scored five runs in the first, South Suburban took a 9-5 lead in the third, only to see New Prague take a 10-9 lead. New Prague trailed 13-12 after the fourth, then regained it with a pair of runs in the fifth to lead 14-13. South Suburban tied the game in the sixth at 14-14, but the Trojans got the five-spot in the sixth and allowed just one run in the seventh to take the win.

“We finally got our bats going this game,” said Coach Shellie Kriha. “This has been a constant struggle so far this year. We have a great line-up from top to bottom and when we can finally have our bats come alive, we will be a great hitting team.”

The defense was strong as well. Centerfielder, Garret Gagner, had a hard hit come his way, but threw a runner out at second on a close play. There was also a huge out at home in the top of the sixth with good fielding awareness by shortstop Jake Sherman and pitcher, Seth Dorner. Second baseman Ethan Minar also had an outstanding game, making three difficult plays and turning them into outs.

New Prague had just four errors on the night.

At the plate, Minar and Aaron Adamson went 4-for-4 at the plate. Dorner and Gagner were both 3-for-4, and Chase Smith and Blake Perry each added two hits.

Blazing Cats 10, Trojans 0 New Prague traveled to Lakeville Monday, April 23, to take on Burnsville/Farmington/Lakeville and were shut out by the Blazing Cats, 10-0.

New Prague started off slow and never really came out of the slump. The team had a few good defensive plays in the outfield, but overall, did not play very well, according to Kriha.

At the plate, the Trojans collected just six hits. Chase Smith had two of those, while Seth Dorner, Jake Schurman, Alexis Parks and Zach Crawford added one each.

Defensively, Garrett Gagner had a good night at centerfield, but Burnsville had too many unearned runs off of errors by the Trojans.