LA CRESCENT — The Caledonia High School softball team knew what it was up against when it made the sort trip to La Crescent on Tuesday.
La Crescent-Hokah beat the Warriors around this time a year ago, so Caledonia wasn’t banking on its 19 wins in 20 games counting for anything.
And even with that focus, the Lancers gave them all they could handle before the Warriors left town with a 3-0 victory.
Caledonia (20-1) scored twice in the first inning, once in the sixth and let the pitching of Avery Augedahl handle the rest as they pushed their current winning streak to 16 games.
“It’s the rivalry,” Caledonia coach Chad Augedahl said as his team packed up the dugout. “Everybody plays hard in a rivalry.
“We need good games to get ready for sections, and (the Lancers) always play us tough. They beat us right before sections last year, so we don’t take anybody lightly.”
Augedahl struck out 15 batters and allowed four singles and one double without walking a batter as Caledonia won by shutout for the ninth time this season and completed a regular-season sweep of La Crescent-Hokah (11-9).
The Warriors took advantage of an error and three passed ball to score their two first-inning runs.
Augedahl walked, stole second and went to third when the Lancers mishandled a grounder off the bat of Elsa Blum. Blum stole second, and Augedahl and Blum scored on passed balls with Ashlyn Reinhart at the plate.
Caledonia extended the lead in the sixth on consecutive doubles by Vivian Kittleson and Adrienne Lange. Lange’s double to left scored Kittleson.
Augedahl struck out five of the last six La Crescent-Hokah batters and got the final out on a called third strike in a full count. She retired the first seven batters of the game and got the outs she needed when the Lancers put two runners on in both the third and fifth innings.
