The Redhawks had worked it down to a 10-9 deficit in the fifth and final inning and had two outs left to finally close that gap, but Wolverines pitcher Emily Vaughn held strong, forcing Megan Popelka into a groundout and Carissa Calderwood into a pop up to end the game.

GMG head coach Katie Barnes said her girls have struggled a bit to start the season, so it was good to see them earn their second win of the year.

“It has been rough, but they have been working really hard and we really emphasize having fun,” Barnes said. “I think putting them in new positions they’ve never played before allowed them to have fun, and they did really well with it.”

The Wolverines (2-7) took a tough loss to Class 1A No. 11 Lisbon to open up the tournament, falling 21-1 in three innings. Barnes said her team did a good job of pushing through that opening loss and holding on to defeat the Redhawks (1-8).

“I think the big takeaway was not getting down on themselves right away,” Barnes said. “They are so hard on themselves and beat themselves up and so we focus on trying to say the game is not over, just keep working hard and give it your all.”

Sidney Catherwood had two singles, an RBI and a run scored in the win for GMG, while Angel Schewe had an RBI and two runs scored.

North Tama showed resilience climbing back from a 10-2 hole, and head coach Sam Holtz said they did so with a shortened bench.

“I know we had a ton of kids gone, all of my junior varsity girls were gone today so we had no substitutes all day,” Holtz said. “A lot of them played new positions today, so it was good to see them work hard at each position that I put them in.”

The Redhawks had their biggest inning when they scored five in the fourth, making it a 10-7 deficit. Sable Fehr, Molly Kvidera and Olivia Schrier all had hits in the inning, while six North Tama batters were either walked or hit to be put on base.

Tournament-host Gladbrook-Reinbeck won its first game, taking down the Redhawks 11-1 in five innings, but in the title match they ran up against the buzzsaw that is Lisbon, losing to the Lions 23-2.

New Rebels head coach Collin Arndt said he had a good feeling about the game against North Tama to start the day.

“We came out very strong this morning, I sent out a text early this morning and said ‘hey, we are going to 10-run this team today,’ and we did it,” Arndt said. “We came out with that mindset and I think that helped us a lot.”

As for the loss to Lisbon, Arndt said his girls lost due to a lack of focus, but playing strong teams like the Lions and AGWSR — who the Rebels opened the season with last Wednesday — will bode well later down the road.

“Facing a good team like this today really helps us because we play in a really tough conference,” Arndt said. “We play East Marshall, West Marshall, BCLUW, so having tough games this early in the season will help us a lot. I am glad we play teams like this, we are seeing what the top teams are like and seeing what it takes to be a top team. Seeing all the little things they do, stuff like that. We need to take that in and help ourselves.”