“It was a good learning experience for her. I told her to enjoy it because they don’t all come out that well,” Shakopee coach Joe Fittante said. “I was telling some of the fans, there’s nothing like the exuberance of a young player. She was really happy and jumping around, it’s good to see.” 

While youth shined in the matchup, the Sabers’ more experienced players helped provide the big plays needed on both ends to close out the game. Junior Lily Treml did just that in the fifth inning when she connected on a swing, sending the ball deep past the right field wall for her first home run on the varsity team.  

Treml, who also hit two singles on the night, made it a 3-0 score and the combination of Danna and junior Sylvia Shromoff was able to close up shop at the mound.  

“It’s funny when I walked out to third base I thought to myself, ‘we really haven’t hit a home run this year,’” Fittante said. “It was nice to see and it was great for Lily because we went suicide squeeze and she missed the sign so the runner got hung up at third.  

“So it was good for (Treml) to get a little bit of redemption.”  

The Sabers’ clutch pitching was helped on by reliable fielding, which proved to be the difference in keeping the Tigers runners on base. Despite out-hitting Shakopee 7-to-6, Farmington was forced to leave runners on base due to their opponent’s stifling defense.  

Both sophomore Lexi Goring and junior Olivia McMahon connected on two singles throughout the game for the Tigers. But once on base, Farmington couldn’t get anything going.  

“I’m sure Farmington is kicking themselves because they left about 15 people on base and they out-hit us and we still won,” Fittante said. “I thought defensively we played really well. We had a rough game against Rosemount so it was good to see them come back a little bit.” 

Despite the win, there’s plenty of lessons that Fittante says his team can learn from this game. All of those lessons can help in the long run as the Sabers prepare for the fast-approaching postseason.  

“It’s more a discussion about how do we continue to learn and do things that are going to put us in the best position once we get to sectionals,” Fittante said. “We talked today about how we’re going to do things between now and then that might not make any sense to you as a player.  

“But I want to make sure that the first time we’re not doing it is when the championships are on the line.”