After being shutout in its previous two games the New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva softball team faced the prospect of facing the defending section champion to New Richland for the regular season finale.

The timing couldn’t be worse for the Panthers (3-14, 2-10) who continued to struggle with their offense in a 15-1, five-inning loss to Maple River Friday.

NRHEG had just two hits in the game and didn’t get its first hit until the fourth inning.

“We just gotta get some hits to fall,” said Panthers head coach Grant Berg.

The Eagles (12-5, 7-2 Valley) where coming off a 2-0 loss to No. 1-ranked Lake Crystal-Wellcome-Memorial Thursday and looked like they were ready for postseason play.

Maple River scored four runs in the first inning, taking advantage of two errors by NRHEG.

“We’ve got to quit making mistakes,” Berg said. “We’re just not a caliber of a team that can rebound from a lot of mistakes whether it be offensively or defensively. We need to play a pretty solid game to compete.”

The errors and walks piled up on the Panthers quickly. Nine of the 15 runs the Eagles scored reached on either an error or a walk.

Heather Annis picked up the win for the Eagles, throwing four innings of one-hit ball. She walked two and struck out three.

Panthers’ starter Jade Schultz was tagged for eight earned runs and nine hits. She struck out four but walked eight.

NRHEG scored its only run in the bottom of the fifth when Betsy Donovan scored from third base on a wild pitch.

NRHEG begins the section playoffs Tuesday and the seventh-seeded Panthers face No. 2 seed United South Central in Wells.

“We kept saying all year we want to be playing our best at the end of the year and I’d like to be on a little better roll than we are now,” Berg said. “I just hope that on Tuesday we come out and play the way we’re capable of playing.”

Maple River 15, NRHEG 1

Maple River 410 64x x — 15 9 0

NRHEG 000 01x x —  1 2 3

WP — Heather Annis 4 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER,

2 BB, 3 K

LP — Jade Schultz 5 IP, 9 H, 15 R, 8 ER,

8 BB, 4 K