As the sun shone over Casper Park, the Lady Macks (8-4, 7-0 Western Cloverbelt Conference) went toe-to-toe with one of the state's best in the Pirates (7-0, 1-0 Lakeland - West Conference), who came into the contest looking to remain unbeaten.
Grantsburg struck first, tallying two runs in the top of the 1st, but didn't score again for four innings. Meanwhile, McDonell started out slowly offensively, but plated a critical run in both the 4th and 5th to tie the game.
In the 6th, Pirates star and University of Wisconsin commit Piper Olson hit a solo homer to center to break the deadlock, which proved to be the deciding run. The Lady Macks got the tying run to third in the bottom of the 7th, but their comeback bid came up just short.
Rylie Christianson went the distance in the circle for the Lady Macks, putting up zeros in five out of seven innings. Juniors Kelsey Bremness and Claire Ruf each crushed a triple, while freshman Ella Amodt notched her 16th RBI of the season.
