Young team makes big splash with league title

The Arrowhead Girls Fastpitch League wound up the season last week with Barnum winning the championship in the U16/U18 Division. Barnum picked up four wins on the way to the title with a team composed entirely of U16 players. "We're a U16 team that includes a lot of our high school varsity softball players," said Barnum coach Dustin Collelo. "A couple of years ago this same group won U14 Gold Division in the summer league, so they are really progressing as a group nicely." The opening game of the tournament saw Barnum defeat the Duluth Waves 11-0 behind the pitching of Makenna Nordstrom. Offensively, it was Ava Nyquist who pounded out a double and added a pair of RBIs. Ali Collelo pitched Barnum to a win in their second game, 5-1 over Hermantown. Nordstrom smacked out a couple of hits in the win. Against the Duluth U18 team, Collelo was the winning pitcher in a 6-5 win. She added a pair of hits. Joining Collelo with multiple hits were Nyquist, Kaitlyn Rudolph and Danika Olson. Barnum slipped by South Ridge 4-2 in the championship as Collelo again pitched her team to the win while Lucy Franek added a double and a walk. "Our team is all Barnum kids and we are still going to play in four fall tournaments," coach Collelo sid. "We have a huge group of kids who will be juniors next season - we have 10 players in that age group - so we are just working hard to learn to stick together and play together and get better." Collelo is not shying away from tougher competition as he plans to continue giving his players opportunities at seeing tougher pitching from the Twin Cities metro area and southern Minnesota this summer and fall. "You just don't get enough high school games in during the spring high school season, so we need to put in the time in the summer and we are lucky that the players and parents are so willing to put in the effort at getting better," Collelo said. Barnum will play in the MONSTA Fastpitch National Championship this weekend in Rochester, Minnesota in an effort to see some of the best players in the country. "We need to see top pitching and this is just another way to do it," Collelo said. "The more the girls see top pitching, the more comfortable they will be at the plate." The tournament in Rochester will feature teams from across the upper Midwest.