ELLSWORTH — Opening day of softball was as perfect as it gets for the Ellsworth Panthers, with beautiful sunny skies, a whopping 19 runs and defensive cohesion in a 19-3 win over Eleva-Strum on Thursday.

“It gets people motivated,” Head Coach Tom Diercks said. “Great to be outside on a nice, bright day. It’s just softball again, kind of gets you into the season.”

Senior Aliza Acker took to the circle for the first time coming off a year of great play at the plate batting .423 and as a pitcher with a 2.27 earned run average. Acker was missing spots early, leading to a few walks which translated to three runs. After the early jitters were gone, Acker limited the damage in the first and carved through the second inning in 1-2-3 fashion with EmmaJo Meier coming in for relief in the third with a shutout inning.

“Our pitching started out a little tough, but she adjusted and she’s since recognized her flaw when she watched the video afterwards,” Diercks said.

After the three runs from the opposition, the Panthers shut the door with seven runs in the first, six in the second and six in the third to end the game after three. To post 19 runs in three innings, it is never going to be just one bat that got it done. The Panthers cycled through the lineup over three times, with each hitter making an impact to some degree.

Acker clubbed a ball to centerfield to bring in a pair of runs, and just like that the opening day door was closed.

“You always take the win, but we had a number of girls really step up in the hitting aspect of it, and some of our younger girls did,” Diercks said.

A key for Ellsworth in the early going is finding the chemistry on the defensive side and finding the perfect positions for each of its players. It is not often that teams get a game in during March because of the inconsistent spring weather, but Thursday’s game helped Ellsworth piece together this puzzle.

“You’re still trying to figure out where people go and who will end up being your starting nine at the end of the season,” Diercks said. “Move them around so we can put the best team out there.

“With a lot of new girls in the field, the communication and just the working together and feeling comfortable together is the biggest thing that we’ll work on going forward,” Diercks said.

Ellsworth keeps its season going with home games April 1 against Durand-Arkansaw and April 3 against River Falls.