On to the title game: Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s crushes New Ulm Cathedral 16-1 in 2A playoffs
NORTH MANKATO — New Ulm Cathedral struggled against Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s on Saturday, falling 16-1 in six innings of Section 2A softball playoff action.
The Knights will play for a state tournament berth at 5 p.m. on Thursday at Caswell Park. It will have to lose twice to be denied a trip to state.
Earlier in the day, Cathedral started off on the right foot against Cleveland, picking up a 4-0 playoff victory.
Josie Pautzke pitched a complete game for the Greyhounds in the first game, allowing just three hits and three walks. She added three strikeouts.
The Greyhounds and Clippers only had two hits apiece through the first four innings, relying on plenty of solid defense from their squads. Cleveland, however, only managed to snag one more hit in the seventh inning.
Cathedral scored its first run in the fifth inning on an RBI hit from Jenna Helget. They added three more runs in the next inning to close things out, led by a Lauryn Franta RBI and an RBI by Abby Beranek.
Rose Hazuka was 2 for 3 for the Greyhounds with two doubles.
After Cathedral’s win over Cleveland, co-coach Jamie Portner felt that her team did the right things at the right time.
“We talked a lot about putting the ball in play,” Portner said. “We didn’t have many strikeouts, so we did that. We just had to wait until we could hit the holes in order to make some things happen. And we took advantage when they made errors.”
The Greyhounds’ second game of the day certainly didn’t turn out the way they had hoped for.
Anna Lux pitched a complete game win for the Knights, with five hits allowed. She struck out two, while allowing one walk.
Pautzke pitched five innings for the Greyhounds, allowing 14 runs on 16 hits and one walk. Heidi Hoffman allowed two hits and two runs in relief of Pautzke.
The Knights were relentless for most of the game, starting with a two-run homer in the first inning by Jody Hansen. Hansen was 2 for 3 with two RBIs.
In the third inning, Ali Beltz launched a two-run homer of her own. The fifth inning saw four more St. Mary’s runs, led by yet another two-run bomb by Beltz, who was 5 for 5 with five RBIs on the day.
Dani Weiss and Lux also added three hits each for the Knights, while both collected a triple.
Eight more runs scored in the sixth inning for the Knights on seven hits and an error, while Cathedral’s lone run came on a base hit RBI in the sixth from Hazuka, who was 1 for 3.
Beltz was in good spirits after St. Mary’s victory and said that she just tried to remain aggressive at the plate. She also said that the team’s confidence was at a high point after the win.
“I think our team’s really confident and we just really thrive off of our energy,” Beltz said. “We just try to have a great time and make things happen.”
St. Mary’s will play the winner of the consolation bracket at 5 p.m. on Thursday. Cathedral plays at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. If Cathedral wins, it has to defeat St. Mary’s twice on Thursday to advance to state.
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