Maggie Bender (Photo by Noah Clooten)
Following a 1-7 start against teams from North Dakota, Manitoba and Montana in February, the Lake Region State College softball team went on its annual Arizona trip over the past week.
The Royals went 1-8, losing their first eight games before salvaging a win on the final day. They’re 2-15 to start the year.
Last season, they went 14-33. Their most recent winning season was a 15-13 campaign during the 2017-18 school year; the year before that, they went 31-5.
From March 11-14, LRSC had four doubleheaders in four days. It was swept by Central Arizona College (6-1 and 22-2), Glendale Community College (12-4 and 7-6) and South Mountain Community College (15-6 and 21-3). The fourth doubleheader, against Scottsdale Community College, saw its first game canceled due to weather. The Royals lost 7-3 in the one game that was played.
LRSC got the weekend off before wrapping up the trip with a doubleheader against Dakota County Technical College. It lost the first game 10-2 before winning the second game 11-8, giving the Royals their second win of the year.
Maggie Bender, the top returning sophomore, leads the team with 22 hits — nine more than any other Royal — through the first 17 games of the season. She came into Monday hitting a whopping .500 with a .955 slugging percentage. Bender has also hit four of the team’s home runs, and she leads the squad with 17 RBIs.
Sophomore Morgan Cervantes has an OBP approaching .500. Freshman Mya Dueck is second on the team in batting average at .290.
The team has just one North Dakotan: New Rockford native Katie Allmaras. She started the year batting .261/.414/.522 with a home run.
Among seven teams in the Mon-Dak, LRSC is last in batting average (.246) and fifth in OBP (.383).
On the pitching side, the Royals have an 11.15 team ERA, which ranks sixth in the Mon-Dak, ahead of only Dakota College at Bottineau. They have four qualified pitchers, all of whom have ERAs at 8.35 or higher.
LRSC sits in sixth place in the Mon-Dak before the start of conference play. Bottineau is in last at 1-15. The Royals’ first conference opponent will be first-place Miles Community College (12-8) this Saturday in Devils Lake, weather permitting. The doubleheader is scheduled for 1 and 3 p.m.
