Staff photo by Steve Muscatello Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Haley Ditch (16) slides into second as Jaedan Nachreiner (8) of Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop waits for the ball during the first game of a doubleheader Monday at MVL.

NEW ULM — Behind an onslaught off offense on Monday, the Minnesota Valley Lutheran softball team coasted to a 12-2 Tomahawk Conference win in six innings over Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop on Monday at MVL High School.

Haley Ditch led the Chargers with a 3-for-3 day at the plate. She also scored three runs and drove in a pair of runs, while Morgan Paulsen had three RBIs on two hits.

MVL also got two hits and two RBIs from Lexi Fischer, while Lauren Paulsen had three RBIs, Stephanie Dalueg had two hits and two RBIs and Payton Richtsmeier added two hits with an RBI.

Dalueg also got the win in the circle for MVL, pitching six innings and allowing five hits for two earned runs. She struck out three.

For GFW, Hana Schroeder and and April Ramirez added a hit and an RBI each, while Morgan Aylsworth, Rylee Sabo and Baleigh Peterson each added a single. Jordan Rettig took the loss for GFW, giving up seven earned runs in two innings before being relieved by Brooklyn Werner, who tossed four innings and allowed four earned runs with five strikeouts.

The two teams were originally set for a doubleheader, but with both teams tied up after five innings in Game 2 and the sun setting, the second game was called due to darkness. No official decision for a makeup date was determined by the time this edition of The Journal went to press.

In the only official final game played between the two teams Monday, MVL got things going with an RBI single by Fischer and an RBI double by Lauren Paulsen in the first inning for a quick 2-0 lead. The Chargers added five more runs in the second inning for a 7-0 lead, led by a pair of two-run doubles, one by Ditch and one by Dalueg.

The Thunderbirds scored its only two runs in the sixth inning after Aylsworth got the inning started with an infield single. With one out, Schroeder drove in Aylsworth on a double to left field before a two-out double by Ramirez drove in Schroeder to have GFW down 7-2.

MVL then finished things in the bottom of the sixth, with a Morgan Paulsen single scoring the final two runs of the game for the early win.

MVL head coach Barb Leopold was happy with her team’s confidence after the big win and was glad to see hits strung together.

“We came through with the hits when we needed to,” Leopold said. “Their first pitcher, it took us a little while to adapt to. We were way ahead of that, but we got into that, we started to relax and started hitting and hit the places. That’s what I think was one of the main things. And defense (one error), I thought we played well also.”

MVL moved to 4-1 overall and 2-1 in the conference with the win.