Posted: 5/29/03

Anoka stunned, stymied after winning 24 straight softball games

It was an unbelievable night with a nightmare finish. After winning its first 24 games this season to move within one game of reaching the state class AAA fast-pitch tournament, Anoka's hopes, dreams and spring of magnificence were dashed by an always playoff tough Stillwater team during a late Wednesday night (May 29) on a softball field just off McKnight road in North St. Paul.

No. 1-ranked in the state with a pitcher, who had not given up an earned run all season, Anoka was indeed primed to take a step the program had never taken before - into the state tournament. Even a 2-0 victory over Stillwater the day before in Section 4AAA's semifinal round was enough to get Anoka over the hump. Instead, all it did was give Stillwater a greater reason to pull off a greater upset - two wins in the section championship round.

The first was a 5-2 victory early in the night. Anoka had a 2-0 lead going into the fourth after scoring one in the first on a Bakke homer and another in the third thanks to a Stillwater error. Stillwater came back to score two in the third and two more in the fourth to take the lead off Anoka pitcher Julie Vancura. Stillwater then added a run in the seventh off Bakke, who had come on in relief.

Though it was inconsequential to the first-game outcome, this single run was significant because it was the only earned run Bakke, who was nearly peerless 24 hours earlier in the 2-0 win over Stillwater, gave up all season.

Bakke started the second game and kept Stillwater at bay through the first six innings, though she was challenged. Meantime, Stillwater's Kari Boughton, who had lost to Bakke and Anoka the day before, but had pitched a complete-game victory in the first game of the championship series, did the same for her team. In fact, she was able to work out major fifth- and sixth-inning jams thanks to her defense and by making clutch pitches.

Thus, the game, the championship and from Anoka's perspective - an incredible season and hopes of more - came down to the seventh.

Stillwater opened the inning with a base hit, but Bakke got the next two batters and appeared to be out of a jam before an error turned the innocence of one runner on and two out into a legitimate threat.

A walk made the threat even more serious as it loaded the bases for Stillwater's top power hitter, Mallory Olson.

Olson subsequently tagged Bakke for a bases-clearing triple that broke open the scoreless pitchers' battle and gave Stillwater a 3-0 lead. Before the inning was over Stillwater had another run and an insurmountable 4-0 lead with Boughten on the rubber.

All four runs were unearned, but this fact mattered little a half-inning later - last of the seventh - when Anoka officially came up short of a goal for the first time all season.

A 10-0 win over Mahtomedi, a 4-0 win over Chisago Lakes, an 8-1 win over Mounds View and the 2-0 win over Stillwater during its first four rounds of Section 4AAA play - which officially counted as consecutive wins No. 21, 22, 23 and 24 in the streak - were all for naught.

In the end, Anoka only had come close to reaching the program's ultimate goal.

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