Iron Mountain’s Claire Mongrain slides into third base as Kingsford’s Emily Curtis receives the throw on Thursday. (Adam Niemi/The Daily News Photo)

IRON MOUNTAIN – Kingsford held off Iron Mountain 10-4 in the second game of a doubleheader to secure a split on Thursday.

The Flivvers scored twice in the top of the first and added three more runs in the third for a controlling 5-1 lead. Kingsford added two runs in the fifth and held off a late Iron Mountain rally to preserve the win.

“They’ve got some really good players and made some great plays today,” Kingsford head coach Kevin Murdock said. “We didn’t help ourselves, no excuse. We had some untimely errors, some bad at-bats when we had people in scoring position, but that’s the game sometimes.”

Iron Mountain scored a run in the first inning and added two in the fifth. The Mountaineers scored a run in the sixth and seventh innings.

Iron Mountain collected nine hits in the final three innings after being held to four in the first four frames.

“It’s tough to ever mount a comeback when you get a baserunner and get to second, third and home on past balls,” Iron Mountain head coach Dean Lefebvre said. “We have to work on our catcher throwing to second. We have to prevent them from stealing. Then they get a runner in position to score and you have to keep the runs down. The girls battled back. We never collapsed or faltered.”

Kingsford’s Molly Wahoviak was 3 for 4 with two RBIs.

Emily Curtis, Maggie Strehlow and Cassie Barglind had one RBI apiece.

“We had a little talk in between about the concentration level,” Murdock said. “I thought we were lacking that in the first game. They really had a good concentration for the second game and we played much better all around.”

Saylor Swartout had a two RBI-single in the fifth for Iron Mountain. Shortstop Lilly VanLoon had an RBI single and a diving catch up the middle in the sixth inning.

Strehlow pitched for Kingsford, giving up 13 hits and two walks with seven strikeouts.

Claire Mongrain pitched for Iron Mountain, giving up 10 hits with six walks and three strikeouts.

Freshman standout

Curtis’ two-run home run in the top of the first gave Kingsford a short-lived 2-0 lead in the first game.

Iron Mountain scored six runs in the first two innings to take an early 6-3 lead.

Mongrain had three RBIs in the first two innings and singled a run in the sixth.

Through the first six games of the season, Mongrain is 15 for 21 at the plate with 12 RBIs, a triple and a home run.

Swartout tripled in the first and singled in the second. Mackenzie Swanson doubled twice and VanLoon had three singles. VanLoon and Swartout each scored three times.

“We came out in the first game and our bats were hot,” Lefebvre said. “We were hitting real good. They have some hitters. We had a big fifth inning.”

Kingsford tried to rally in the fourth and fifth innings with three combined runs on five hits but were set down 1-2-3 in the sixth and stranded a runner at second to end the game.

VanLoon pitched for Iron Mountain, surrendering nine hits and two walks with five strikeouts. Barglind gave up 13 hits and a walk while striking out six for Kingsford.

Murdock said the youth of his team can lead to mistakes, but is hoping the team speed can compensate.

“Our overall team speed, I like. We can run the bases,” he said. “The big part of that is we’re young – we’re going to make mistakes. But if we can make up for the mistakes with speed, we’re going to be all right in the long run.”