Hurley rallies past Devils

By JASON JUNO

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Hurley --- The Hurley Northstars look forward to Olivia DiGiorgio's return. They have missed her power bat and veteran presence on the mound since she injured her leg in a loss to Mellen.

But at the same time, freshman Ariel Haasch has excelled in her absence.

The Northstars have won three out of four games with her on the mound, two of them big Northern Lights Conference games. In a rivalry game against Ironwood last week, she led the Northstars at the plate, going 3 for 3 with an inside-the-park home run and a double. Her two-out double in the second drove in a run and got the Northstars on the board after falling behind 4-0.

It was all Hurley from there as the Northstars beat Ironwood 14-4 in five innings.

They tied it in the third inning and scored eight in the fourth to take control after getting a scare from the Red Devils, who are playing better at times, but still seeking their first win.

"We didn't come to play," Hurley coach Randy King said. "When you're behind 4-0 before you know it, they needed to hear about it. They woke up after that and they played the way they can."

Haasch finished with eight strikeouts while allowing the four second-inning runs where Ironwood took advantage of three Hurley errors and also strung together three hits of their four hits. She also walked five in five innings of work.

"I had some pretty good strikes and a couple good changeups," she said. "And I was able to correct things."

Haasch said she was a little nervous at first - and still is at times - but that has gotten better.

"She's been pitching all winter. Coach Charlie Zinsmaster does a great job with these pitchers," King said. "As a freshman, very impressive. She stepped in and filled in for Olivia."

After Hurley's tough start to the second inning with those three errors, Ironwood's Riley Graser doubled and drove in two runs. Jada Godfrey followed with an RBI single.

"Give Ironwood credit, they came to play," King said.

Hurley cut into that 4-0 lead with two runs in the bottom of the second. Haasch doubled in a run and Ryley Nyquist singled to bring her home.

It was 4-4 when Hurley took over the lead with the big fourth inning. Alayna King tripled to score a run, Andi Krall hit a two-run single and Haasch hit her inside-the-park home run to make it 13-4 after four innings.

"She hits the crap out of it, she does, and she's fast," King said. "This whole freshman class is pretty talented."

Hurley ended the game with one more run in the fifth, on a triple by Saylor Gilbertson.

"I thought we played well for the most part, we tend to have one bad inning that we can't recover from and that's what happened here," Ironwood coach Liz Constantini said.

King finished with three hits, including a triple. Gilbertson also tripled and had two hits. Hurley finished with 12 hits in all.

Breleigh Lahti took the loss.