Todd Rose | Daily Press Superior Central’s Shea Lampinen (right) slides into home while Bark River-Harris catcher Ava Arndt (left) waits for the ball Thursday in Bark River.

BARK RIVER — The Superior Central Cougars doubled up on the Bark River-Harris Broncos with a pair of wins in a softball doubleheader Thursday afternoon in Bark River.

Both games saw the Cougars win handily with scores of 11-4 in the opener and 13-7 in the nightcap.

While game one went the full seven innings, game two ended after five innings due to darkness.

“It feels good that we’re competing now,” said Cougars coach Rich Swajanen. “This Bark River has been beating us up for quite a few years.”

Emma Rutter pitched the full first game to earn the win for Superior Central while Rachel Johnson and Sammy Johnson split duties in the second game with Rachel getting credited with the win.

Swajanen noted the progress his players have been making as one of the contributing factors to the team’s success in the early stages of this season.

“Some of these girls are really coming around,” he said. “Shea is such a good catcher and Emma’s starting to throw strikes now and we’ve got some pitchers coming up to with Rachel Johnson and Sammy Johnson.”

The Cougars took control early in game two, scoring six points in the first inning of play. Rachel Johnson knocked in two runs on a bases-loaded double to start things and the runs began to trickle in from there.

This week’s games against Rapid River and Bark River-Harris have given the Cougars a chance to hit the field as their diamond in Eben is still covered in snow in some places.

With a full roster and then some, Swajanen has plenty of options for lineups and substitutions for this season.

“We’re pretty solid all around,” he said. “…We’ve got 16 kids and a bunch of seniors, probably six seniors at least, and we’re going to have some kids coming up next year.”

On the mound for the Broncos in the second game was Abbie Ingersol. Despite the shaky opening, Ingersol closed the first inning, striking out Riley Johnson looking. After that, she seemed to settle in.

“She could have rolled right over and just fell to pieces but she didn’t,” said BR-H coach Rob Arndt. “She kept her composure and kept on throwing and battled. It was great to see her start throwing strikes. Once you start throwing strikes, then hopefully your defense can do something which that’s what we need to work on. Our defense needs to do a little more to help her on out.”

Nina Bower was on the mound for the first game pitching all seven innings.

After scoring two in the bottom of the first, the Broncos were able to bring the game within three points heading into the third.

Faith Javurek put down a bunt to bring home Kassidy LaBay. Bower ripped a single to centerfield to usher Javurek home and then crossed home on an overthrown ball at third base.

Overall, Arndt was happy with how the teams progressed through the day’s games.

“I think that first game we had the first game jitters,” he said. “We’ve got two young pitchers. Both our pitchers are sophomores. But, we talked about this while beginning the season here.

“What we want to be able to do is we want to make routine plays, throw strikes and hit the fastball. Well, we struggled with all those things tonight,” he laughed. “The second game we got a lot better on that. … Once we kind of buckled down a little bit, we did alright.