Thirty-five runs, 29 hits and 17 walks for Prescott led to a pair of wins over Ellsworth, capping off both of their conference schedules.

“We really hit the ball well,” Prescott Head Coach Nick Johnson said. “We’re kind of hitting a groove right now where we’re putting the ball in play, we’re having great at-bats and we just kind of continued to pile on runs… We knew we had to score a lot of runs. Ellsworth’s one of the best hitting teams we’ve seen all year.”

In the opener May 13, senior Aliza Acker of Ellsworth kicked things off with a two-run homer in the top of the first inning. Acker has been on an absolute tear for the Panthers, and a three-hit night was just another day on the diamond. The second inning featured an RBI slapped two-out single from senior Karli Gutting and junior Maggie Pechacek dunking in a single of her own to make it 4-0.

Prescott found its way back in the bottom of the second, putting together a five-run rally to take a 5-4 lead off a small-ball inning. After a leadoff double to centerfield from Leah French, each batter followed up by simply doing their job and putting the ball in play. Things calmed down on both sides until Prescott put up a nine spot in the fourth to put themselves out of reach in a 16-8 win.

“Ellsworth put a lot of good swings on the ball, and it forces us to make plays, and we did,” Johnson said. “I think we’re averaging something like one error a game.”

The defense has been a strong suit this year for the Cardinals. Johnson put a focus on throwing strikes, not allowing Ellsworth to get baserunners, because they are known to take full advantage.

Prescott junior Cadyn Hillebrand was 3-3 on the night with a walk and a double. French had a 3-5 day with a double of her own. The rest of Prescott’s 12 total hits were all singles, as it was a contact hitting clinic.

“They’re not trying to do too much with it. We’ve got, obviously, some really good power hitters too, but we just continued to find ways to get on base,” Johnson said. “We got on base a lot in those games with hit-by-pitches, walks. We just had deep counts against them.”

Johnson said the key is to limit strikeouts and make the opposing pitcher earn every out.

Senior Rory Zuehlsdorf did her job in the circle to keep an always dangerous Ellsworth offense at an arm’s length.

“Ellsworth is a pretty good hitting team, and I feel like our defense, especially our outfielders, really stepped up,” Zuehlsdorf said. “In the early innings, there were a lot of opportunities where we could have gotten down on ourselves, because they did score four runs, but I don’t think we let that get us down at all.”

The May 15 game in Ellsworth saw an interesting distribution of runs from the Cardinals. Prescott scored six in the top of the first, but then was blanked all the way until the sixth inning when they scored six and tacked on seven more in the seventh.

The Cardinals racked up 17 more hits in the 19-7 win with home runs from French, Zuehlsdorf and Talli Roth and doubles from Izzy Thoen and Grace Ptacek. Zuehlsdorf once again pitched the entire game.

“We were all confident coming into it,” senior French said. “We all knew we had to play our game and then we’d be fine.”

Zuehlsdorf said the team has used the day between conference games to look back and see if any adjustments are needed, mentally reset and pounce again.

“The day in between kind of lets us reset ourselves,” French said.

With the postseason coming up, Johnson wants the team to use the State experience from last year to stay calm and not let the moment get the best of them.

“We’re experienced. We bring a lot back from last year’s State championship team,” Johnson said. “Not trying to put too much pressure on themselves, and just kind of go out and do what we’ve been doing all season.”