The Elk River Elks will challenge the St. Francis Fighting Saints at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Elk River's hitters haven't had much luck over their past four contests, but Wednesday's game will give them a chance to turn things around.
The home team had come away the winner the last four times Elk River and Blaine had met, but sadly for the fans who attended this one that wasn't the case. The Elks lost 13-1 to the Bengals on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, there's no place like home for St. Francis, who bounced back after a loss on the road on Saturday. Everything went their way against Monticello on Tuesday as they made off with a 10-3 victory. Considering the Fighting Saints have won four matches by more than five runs this season, Tuesday's blowout was nothing new.
Sydney Borchert made a big impact no matter where she played. She looked comfortable on the mound, not allowing a single earned run while striking out 13 over seven innings pitched. She has been nothing but reliable: she hasn't tossed less than eight strikeouts in four consecutive appearances. She was also big at the plate, going 3-for-4 with two RBI and one run. Those three hits gave her a new career-high.
In other batting news, St. Francis let Alexa Skogquist and Grace Keding run wild. Skogquist went 2-for-3 with two runs and one RBI, while Keding went 2-for-3 with two runs, one stolen base, and one double. Emily Meyer was another key player, going 1-for-3 with one stolen base, one run, and one RBI.
St. Francis was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .414. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Monticello only posted a batting average of .241.
St. Francis' win was their fourth straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 6-2. The home victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.8 runs on average over those games. As for Elk River, their loss dropped their record down to 2-6.
Elk River suffered a grim 8-2 defeat to St. Francis in their previous matchup back in April of 2024. Can the Elks avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
