Rapid City Stevens scored 10 runs after two outs on the way to a 12-0 high school softball victory over Aberdeen Central Friday afternoon at Koehler Hall of Fame Field.

The visitors, who scored once in the first frame, broke the game open with six runs in the second inning. The Raiders added four more in the fourth and another in the fifth.

“Stevens did a wonderful job in really kind of highlighting some of our deficit areas,” said Central coach Cassidy Neer. “(Thursday against Mobridge-Pollock) we were able to get away with some of those things and that’s just some of the things that the girls are starting to learn, too. Things you can get away with vs. certain things you can’t against different teams.”

One of the things Stevens was able to do was negate Central’s speed, because for the most part they were able to keep the Golden Eagles off the base paths. The hosts managed just one hit, an Ayrlie Waldo single against high-quality pitching.

“Honestly, you have to imagine every pitch as being a strike is my mindset,” Waldo said. “So I got up there and I plan at swinging at every single one that’s down the middle, and that’s kind of what happened. I had three pitches and swung at the first two, and third one, just got it, so the timing was right.”

While Central found hits hard to come by, it was just the opposite for Stevens, which racked up 17 hits, including a pair of home runs, two triples and two doubles.

“They could do really good with the weaknesses on our part. They just had some good hits. They were able to hit some all the way to the fence, some over the fence at times,” Waldo said. “They were just capitalizing on some little things that we are still working on.”

It was a bit of a unique environment for the Golden Eagles, who were without their junior varsity players who were competing off site against the Stevens JV. That made for a much quieter atmosphere for Central.

“I think that was a little bit of an cool eye opener for our varsity girls, to appreciate how much our JV girls are loud in the dugout, because our dugout was a little bit quieter today,” Neer said. “We only had 11 in there total, where normally we have 26.”

Central will look to bounce back this morning when they host Sturgis at 10 a.m. at Koehler Hall of Fame Field.

Waldo, one of two seniors on the squad, is looking forward to getting back on the diamond.

“Honestly, with it being senior morning, I’m used to senior night, and us playing Sturgis, I think all the girls are going to show up with a really good mindset,” Waldo said. “We know that we want to win and we’re going to play off of how we played (Thursday) and look past this game today.”

Interestingly, Waldo was a member of the track and field squad two years ago until softball became a sanctioned sport. She said it led to having to make a difficult choice.

“As a junior when I heard that we were going to have a softball team, I was so excited, because I played Parks and Rec,” Waldo said. “I loved track and I would love to be a part of both of them, but honestly I think that softball was calling and I’m glad I chose it overall.”

Neer is excited about the opportunity to host Sturgis on senior day.

“We have some good variables in our favor,” Neer said. “It’s a home game, it’s a Saturday, it’s a beautiful day, it’s senior day, and I couldn’t be more excited to celebrate our seniors, just to recognize the hard work they’ve put in and not only in softball, but in the classroom and in the community.”

Rapid City Stevens 160 41 – 12 17 0

Aberdeen Central 000 00 – 0 1 1

Emma Dressler, Lainey Van Zee (3) and Addie Hock; Rachel Siefken, Kaylee Kiesow (2) and Reese Comstock. 2B – Rapid City Stevens, Joslyn Johnson, Kara Collins. 3B – Rapid City Stevens, Hock, Chloe Ohlsen. HR – Rapid City Stevens, Bailey Kokesh. Nieva Colicheski.