TRAPPERS BEAT CUBS FOR 3RD PLACE AT STATE

Scotland/Menno is returning home Saturday night with third place.

Competing in the medal round of the 2024 SDHSAA State Softball Tournament in Aberdeen, the Trappers shrugged off a slow start and put the hammer down on Alcester-Hudson 11-5 for their second win of the tournament.

Scotland/Menno beat Gayville-Volin 12-8 in the opening round on Thursday before suffering a tough, 5-3 loss to top-seed Castlewood in the semifinals on Friday to set up the third/fourth place game against the Cubs.

The team appeared loose but focused the dugout prior to Saturday’s 2:30 p.m. first pitch and executed when they had to. After going down 1-2-3 in each of the first three innings, the Trappers put up four runs in the fourth inning thanks largely to back-to-back home runs by Grace Robb and Kylie Guthmiller that gave Scotland/Menno a 4-3 lead. Alcester-Hudson got two back in the bottom of the fourth on an error, but the Trappers countered in the fifth with five more runs — four of which came on an inside-the-park grand slam by Olivia Binde.

That drained whatever momentum Alcester-Hudson had left, and two more Trappers runs in the sixth brought the game to its final score of 11-5.

Binde, who is going to Augustana University in fall on a band scholarship — choosing that over softball — was the winning pitcher. She threw 98 pitches in the win and 283 for the tournament.

“I’m so proud of this team,” said Aisha Abbink. “We had big goals and I’m glad we could accomplish them.”

Abbink noted the bounce-back attitude her players embraced after what was a disappointing loss to Castlewood.

“Nobody could wear that loss; it was everybody’s fault and we needed every single person to step up and be loud,” said the coach. “With that we were able to get in the pitcher’s head a little bit, which was to our benefit, and every single girl knew what they needed to do to get this win.”

Much more on the three-day tournament for the Trappers will be published next week.