Saints take brooms to three Minden foes

Kaylia Hardenbrook’s seven RBIs helped fuel the Southern Valley-Alma three-game sweep at Minden on Saturday.

Breckyn Prietaur/Courtesy Photo

MINDEN, Neb. — St. Paul was a big threat for Saints, but Southern Valley-Alma Saints swept through three softball foes at Saturday’s Minden Invitational.

The Saints raised their season record to 13-5 with wins over Minden, 9-3; Gothenburg, 11-5; and edging St. Paul, 8-7.

Tied 1-1, the Saints buried those G-Burg Swedes during a six-run second inning.

Haley Witte and Erica Barwick would blast three hits apiece during this win. Barwick joined Sydney Scharvin in driving home three runs each.

Kaylia Hardenbrock added two more RBis to support the six solid innings from winning pitcher Maddie Cervera.

Game two turned wild even SV-A took a 5-0 lead through only frame.

St. Paul rallied even caught the Saints at 7-7 — only to see one more Saint cross home plate for a “walkoff” win.

Cervera’s bats actually plated three Saints as she delivered a team-high two hits.

Witte walked three times to keep the Saints moving.

Abby Cervara pitched the first 4 2/3 innings but Maddie got her second win of this day with a 1 1/3 of relief. They teamed to strike out three St. Paul batters.

No drama was needed in the finale as Southern Valley-Alma built a 9-0 lead before finishing off host Minden.

Hardenbrook delivered a tourney-high four RBIS for any Saint in a single game on Saturday.

Krianna Kring contributed two hits to match Maddie Cervera, who drove home another two Saints.

Abby Cervara pitched four solid innings to capture this win. She struck out five Whippets.

Now that the rainy weather has taken a little break, several area softball games are set to fill the remainder of this week.

McCook hosts a huge game with the Class A Kearney Bearcats Thursday evening.

The Bison (13-11) move on to play in Saturday’s Greater Nebraska Activities Conference tournament at Lexington.