Playing in their home opener on Heroes Field on Monday, the Munising softball team picked a perfect time to have some of their best play of the season. On a pleasant early spring evening they defeated visiting Stephenson in both games, 17-12 and 19-4; their first wins of the season and their first home victories since 2021.

“Honestly, these girls, they give me their all every single practice and it has kind of been a make-shift rotation of who is available and who is not because of outside factors, but they give me everything they have got every game,” head coach Casey Ford said. “Sometimes we aren’t successful, this time we happened to put all the pieces together and we got a couple of wins.”

In game one, the Lady Mustangs found themselves down 9-1 in the second inning. An inside-the-park grand slam by Brooklynn Joyner helped change momentum, and Hayden Bayer also had a three-run triple. Bayer had another single in the game and reached base twice on walks.

Joyner was also the winning pitcher, as she went four innings and gave up three wins, earning her first career victory.

In game two, Joyner once again got the victory in the circle.

Kaylen Kienitz was a perfect-four-of-four at the plate, Toni Briggs had an RBI double and Bayer added another hit. Joyner was hit by a pitch three times and also earned a walk.

Kristin Joyner pinch hit late in the game and smashed an RBI double.

“We just played really well defensively,” Ford said. “Bayer hasn’t played shortstop before and she did a remarkable job playing there, she was a vacuum there. Briggs made some great stops at first base as well, she literally scoops everything. It is great to get a couple wins, they were team wins, everyone did something in the line-up.”

On Tuesday, April 30 Munising lost two games at Norway, 11-1 and 12-2.

“We were really competitive, it is just Norway is really good,” Ford said. “Kristin Joyner pitched really well in game on relief, we were down 7-0 and she limited the damage. Brooklynn Joyner pitched well in game two, but they had five line drives in a row that weren’t catchable in the fourth. We didn’t do anything wrong, they just hit the ball where we weren’t.”

Munising was scheduled to host Rapid River on Wednesday, was at Gwinn on Thursday and will host Manistique on Monday.