A big first inning for St. Ansgar Wednesday was all it needed in a 14-4 win over the Northwood-Kensett softball team.

The Saints scored seven runs, three of which were earned, and took advantage of three errors by the Vikings defense.

“That killed us in the first inning,” Northwood-Kensett head coach Aaron Foster said. “They should have scored two or three but we gave them seven.”

The bats for the Vikings picked up and grabbed eight hits in the game, the biggest coming in the fifth inning when Brooke Clausen drove a pitch out of the park for her first career home run.

“Offensively we started coming on there in the end and did a really nice job,” Foster said. “We got a lot of singles and Brooke obviously got a home run which was nice.”

Four Northwood-Kensett hits had multi-hit games including Claussen’s two-run shot.

“Brooke’s been hitting the ball extremely well,” Foster said. “She’s probably has one of the hottest bats in the conference right now.”

The hitting was a good turn of events for a Vikings team that has struggled all season.

“We struggled defensively initially,” Foster said. “Offensively we did well.”

St. Ansgar 14, Northwood-Kensett 4, 5 innings

St. Ansgar – 711 14x x – 14 8 3

Northwood-Kensett – 000 13x x – 4 8 5

LP – Kate Hartman 5 IP, 8 H, 14 R, 7 ER, 4 K, 4 BB