South Dakota State commit Morgan DeMarais threw a perfect game against Monticello in Buffalo’s home-opener on its brand new field on Tuesday.

Thursday brought western blowing winds that helped St. Michael-Albertville send the ball over the left field wall on three occasions.

“It was a little nerve-racking looking at what the score was,” DeMarais said. 

Fortunately for DeMarais, the wind was equally unforgiving to the Knights as the Bison cranked four balls out of the park and cruised to a 13-9 victory over the St. Michael-Albertville at Buffalo High School.

“We’ve been getting some timely hits,” coach Brad Zrust said. “St. Michael has a really good team and we went back and forth. We just ended up getting a couple more home runs than they did and that was probably the ball game."

The Knights came within a run after Lexy Fuerstenberg drilled the game’s first home run in the top of the fourth. 

That’s the closet St. Michael-Albertville (3-2, 2-2) got the lead, as the Bison’s Mackenzie Johnson with her team leading 5-4 in the bottom of the fifth. Johnson eyed up a 1-2 pitch and swung with gusto.

“She killed that one,” Zrust said. “That was a no-doubter when we saw that.”

Johnson two-run bomb energized her team, leading to home runs from Katie Carlson and Autumn Senger and Buffalo (4-0, 3-0) batting around the lineup.

DeMarais built off her team’s explosion at the plate and struck out the first two batters she faced in the top of the sixth, but Maren Hamann smacked a two-out solo home run to give the Knights some hope. 

DeMarais threw all seven innings, allowing nine hits and five earned runs, while striking out seven batters.

“I’m an old fashioned coach, so I want to say pitching and defense -- which I’ve always lived and breathed for,” Zrust said regarding his team’s best strength. “But I got to say our hitting is a pretty good strong point.” 

Buffalo is collectively hitting .365 on the season with a lineup that returned all but one player from its roster last year that was the Class 4A runner-up.

DeMarais tweaked her ACL in sections last year, but played through the pain in the state tournament before tearing it in July lifting weights. As terrible as injuries are, this one seems to have had the upside of knitting the team closer together. 

“We’re building off how much chemistry we have and the urge to go out there and get every win we can,” DeMarais said. 

Buffalo hit three home runs and scored seven runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to runaway with a 13-9 win over Mississippi 8 Conference opponent St. Michael-Albertville Thursday evening at Buffalo High School.

Mackenzie Johnson was 3-for-4 on the day, and started the Bison’s run with a two-run homer. Katie Carlson and Autumn Senger both lifted hits over the left field fence to extend the inning where Buffalo (4-0, 3-0) batted around the lineup.

Maren Hamann began a rally for the Knights (3-2, 2-2) with a solo home run in the top of the sixth, but St. Michael Albertville fell short of coming back in the seventh, only mustering four runs.

Morgan DeMarais went the distance for Buffalo and threw seven strikeouts, while Brooke Burditt threw five innings and struck out two for the Knights.

The MN Softball Hub polls are for entertainment purposes only. 

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