Northwest's Klein helps Red team earn NCA all-star split

Mikaela Klein has helped put the Grand Island Northwest softball program on the map.

Klein became the school's first representative to play in the Nebraska Coaches Association all-star softball game on Wednesday at the Nebraska Softball Complex.

Klein had a single in the first game to help the Red to a 2-1 victory. The Blue came back to win the second game 4-1.

"It's a big honor," Klein said of playing in the game. "It was so much fun. I enjoyed playing with different girls from different classes that I don't get to see out in Grand Island.

"It was fun to have all the Lincoln and Omaha girls because I don't see them."

Northwest coach Mike Witt, who was head coach for the Red team, said having Klein play in the all-star game was a great step forward for his program.

"It's very nice," he said. "We're going to use this to encourage kids to get excited about Northwest softball and keep coming out and to keep the program growing and going the right direction."

Klein, who was named captain of The Independent's first All-Heartland softball Super Squad last fall, had 18 doubles her senior season. She hit .456 with 38 RBIs while scoring 39 runs.

"Mikaela is the kind of girl that comes around once in a lifetime," Witt said. "We're going to miss her more than anybody will ever realize. She is a tremendous leader. She set all kinds of records and has the state record for career doubles.

"She set all kinds of school records and she's a wonderful young woman. I know she's going to do well at Concordia."

Klein played second base in the All-Star game after playing shortstop for the Vikings her final two seasons. She did play second base as a freshman and again as a sophomore.

The Blue team may have been the favorite in the doubleheader with four players on the roster who will join the Nebraska program this coming year: Lincoln Southwest's Madison Drake, Beatrice's Jamie Gay and Ashley Hagemann and Nikki Haget of Elkhorn.

But the Red team had three players headed for Creighton: Omaha Westside's Christa Ruf, Papillion-LaVista South's Alexa Mackevicious and Millard North's Lauren Larson.

"That's kind of funny because we have all the Creighton recruits on our side," Witt said. "And we were wearing red and they were wearing blue, so there's a little irony there. We noticed yesterday that was kind of a funny thing.

"Obviously you'd like to win them both, but I think it's appropriate considering the level of talent on both teams that it's a split."

The first game was tied at 1-1 heading into the bottom of the seventh. With two outs, Hastings' Melanie Patrick tripled down the right-field line off the glove of diving right fielder Shelly Martin of Omaha Westside. Patrick then scored on a single over the head of the left fielder by Bellevue West's Erica McCoy.

"It's is kind of fun to have a Hastings girl do that," Witt said. "And then to have Erica step up. I thought it was going out. It looked like it was going out."

The Blue was got the bat going in the second game with 12 hits, all singles. The Blue scored what proved to be the winning run in the third inning when Mallory Johnsen's single drove in Gay to give the Blue a 2-1 lead.

The Blue had four hits in the inning, but only scored the one run. It added two insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth inning.

The two teams combined for only one error in the two games.

"I thought the girls as a whole played excellent defense," Witt said. "It's just so fun to watch this kind of talent play. You don't get players like this together on a field very often at all, so I feel very blessed to have been fortunate enough to work with these young women."

NCA All-Star Doubleheader
First Game
Blue    000    001    0--1    6    0
Red     010    000    1--2    7    1
WP--Danielle Mowinkel (Logan View). LP--Brooke Cronican (Ralston). 2B--Blue: Allison Brandt (Milford). Red: Stephanie Schmidt (Chase County). 3B--Red: Melanie Patrick (Hastings).

Second Game
Red     100    000    0--1     5     0
Blue    011    002    x--4    12    0
WP--Nicole Sempek (Elkhorn). LP--Danielle Mowinkel (Logan View). 2B--Red: Lauren Larson (Millard North).