Ellsworth and Prescott softball each took a game off each other in the rivalry. Ellsworth kicked off the week with a walk-off hit to win 9-8 and Prescott bounced back with a 14-run inning to win 14-4 on its home field.

The Panthers were rolling in the opener, getting home runs from Ava Whipple, Brinklee Graetz and Tate Huppert to end the sixth inning with an 8-2 lead. Prescott was not done fighting, though. The Cardinals ran a carousel around the bases in the seventh to come all the way back and tie the game. Graetz led off the bottom of the inning with a walk, followed by a Whipple walk and a single from Addy Dodge to load the bases with one out. Backs against the wall, Prescott shortstop Cadyn Hillebrand snatched a line drive and tossed the ball to third to catch a retreating runner for a double play. Huppert wound up getting the job done anyway, hitting a ground ball to left that allowed Whipple to score, marking a walk-off hit for the freshman.

“A little disappointed in the top half of that inning, but they knew they could hit and come back. When they had the girl doubled off, it got a little bit scarier. We didn’t want it to go to extra-innings, that’s for sure,” Ellsworth Head Coach Tom Diercks said. “It was good for the girls. Prescott’s always a big game, so that was awesome. Hopefully they can take a little of that moving forward.”

In game two, Ellsworth came out to a commanding 4-0 lead in the middle of the fourth inning, but Prescott scored an insane 14 runs in the fourth inning, shutting the door in the fifth to win 14-4 by run-rule. Prescott had 16 team hits over just four innings at the plate.

“Consistent at-bats. When we finally figure it out, we lock in and we’re tough to handle, but sometimes it takes us a little bit to get going,” Prescott Coach Nick Johnson said.

With the exception of two innings totaling 20 runs against, Ellsworth allowed just two runs over nine innings against the Cardinals. Now, limiting the massive innings becomes the next step for the Panther defense.

“It’s huge. We’ve got to deal with the confidence thing and forgetting about mistakes. Once they happen, they’re over, they’re done with, you’ve got to move forward,” Diercks said. “We’re letting one mistake become two, become three. Obviously Prescott hit the ball too.”

Eight Panthers got hits in the 9-8 win, which Diercks said is a testament to the work that has been put in inside the batting cages. The big crowds put that work to the test, and he wants to see his team tune out the opposing crowd and use their crowd to shift momentum at will.

“It definitely helps for playoff time,” Diercks said. “We talk about you shouldn’t even notice the crowd, but they do.”

Things were not rolling at times for Prescott, but the big innings were a testament to their never-give-up mentality. While Ellsworth’s 6-11 record is not great on paper, the Panthers have picked it up of late in addition to playing a brutal early season schedule.

“That’s a team I would not want to face in the playoffs because I think they’re putting things together,” Johnson said of Ellsworth. “I give them credit because they didn’t start out super well this year, but I think they got things going in the right direction.”

Prescott is up to 13-5 on the year. Baldwin-Woodville, Somerset and Altoona still remain ahead of the Cardinals in conference, but the key will be playing their best ball when the postseason begins. The rivalry games have helped get a taste of what the experience will be like.

“It definitely had a playoff atmosphere because those games always do with the rivalry with Ellsworth. We kind of had that feeling when we played River Falls, too,” Johnson said. “We need that pressure.”