The Golden Rams of Anoka-Ramsey hosted the Spartans of M-State on Tuesday, May 2 and came away with a doubleheader split. The Spartans took game one by a score of 5-1 and the Golden Rams won the nightcap 11-10.
Game one saw a familiar theme develop as of late where M-State jumped to a 5-0 lead behind 3 homeruns.
Anoka-Ramsey came back with a run provided by freshman pitcher Lindsey Swanson's (Irondale) 4th inning solo homerun.
That would be all of the offense that the Golden Rams could muster as they finished with only 3 hits.
Swanson pitched the complete game while striking out seven and walking zero in the loss.
Game two again saw Anoka-Ramsey fall behind early, 2-9 after 2 innings.
Timely hitting by the Spartans and poor defensive play by the Golden Rams contributed to the big deficit. The early bright spot was sophomore 2nd base Shannon Olson (Andover) hitting a 2-run bomb over the centerfield fence.
Anoka-Ramsey got the lead back to 5-10 heading into the bottom of the 7th when a come-back for the ages took place.
Freshman 3rd base Ashton Prachar, Olson and Swanson led off the inning with back to back to back singles cutting the lead to 6-10 with nobody out.
Next came a fielder's choice, ground ball RBI and an error to cut the M-State lead to 9-10 with 2 outs. Then with two strikes on her, freshman RF JoJo Liebelt (Columbia Heights) launched a shot to left field that hit the top of the fence and bounced back into play.
So instead of a walk-off homerun, Liebelt has to settle for a game tying double. The next batter up for the Golden Rams was sophomore LF Alexus Martin-Warren (Andover) who then hit the game winning base hit up the middle for the come from behind victory 11-10.
The #7 nationally ranked Golden Rams are now 23-16 overall and 13-5 in the MCAC Southern Division.
Next up for the team is the St. Thomas JV away at 4 and 5:45 pm today in non-conference play.