Sports : Vikettes shock No.7 Maquoketa, 1-0

Vikette pitcher Maddie Cornell fires to first base as teammate Katie Henderson looks on.

Ashley Strong stands at second base after her two-run single in the sixth inning.

Katie Hanson connects for her game-winning RBI single Wednesday against Maquoketa

The Vikettes celebrate after defeated No. 7 Maquoketa, 1-0, Wednesday

VINTON – A week ago Monday, the Vinton-Shellsburg Vikettes played a doubleheader with Marion that took just short of five hours to complete. Wednesday night, the Vikettes and seventh-rated Maquoketa needed just 58 minutes to play a single game.

And what a 58 minutes it was!

Vikette freshman Maddie Cornell carried a no-hitter into the seventh-inning and needed just a two-out, fifth-inning pinch-hit RBI single from fellow frosh Katie Hanson to pull out the 1-0 win over the Cardinals at Thole Field.

Cornell and Cardinal All-Stater Hailey Bickford matched each other pitch for pitch through four innings – and just short a half-hour of playing time – of nearly flawless ball. Each had surrendered just one base-runner; Cornell a two-out walk to Bickford in the first and Bickford a two-out single to Kaley Womochil in the second.

But after the fourth, Maquoketa’s coach unexplictably pulled Bickford and replaced her with Brooklyn Konrada. Konrada would retired the first two batters she faced, before junior Jena Relf stepped the plate.

Relf worked the count to 1-1, then blasted the next pitch into the left field corner for a double and on the throw to second to try and get her, the ball got away. Relf jumped up and headed safely to third.

Coach Bari Parrott then elected to bat for right fielder Syd Etten with Hanson. The freshman took a strike, then blooped a single to right. Relf sprinted home and the Vikettes had a 1-0 lead.

The Cardinals were still hitless into the seventh, but Konrada led off the last inning with a single, and 8th-grader Aubrie Taylor went in to run for her. On the first pitch to Bickford, Taylor broke for second but was gunned down at the bag on a perfect play by the Ashleys – catcher Boyer to shortstop Strong – for the first out. That play would prove to be huge.

With no one on and one out, Bickford crushed the next pitch into the right-centerfield gap for a triple. But there she would stay, as Cornell got Kelsey Bollman to pop out to Katie Henderson foul territory, and got Katelyn Paul to ground out and the Vikettes had the winner, 1-0; in just 58 minutes.

The Vikettes host Iowa Valley tonight at 6 p.m. in a JV/varsity doubleheader at Thole Field, then travel tomorrow night to Benton Community for a JV/varsity tilt with the Bobcats.