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St. Mary’s splits, advances to 3rd-place game

Photo courtesy of Don Borstad Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s starting pitcher Anna Lux tosses a pitch during the Knight’s opening round win against Pillager in the Class A State Tournament on Thursday at Caswell Park in North Mankato.

NORTH MANKATO — After a long wait, Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s finally got to take the diamond for the Class A state softball semifinals against New York Mills.

New York Mills scored one run in the bottom of the sixth to break a 6-6 tie and advanced to the state championship game with a 7-6 victory against St. Mary’s late Thursday night at Caswell Park.

The Knights (23-3) will play at 11 a.m. on Friday in the third-place game.

Earlier in the day, St. Mary’s won 7-1 against Pillager. That set the stage for the semifinal game, which was supposed to start at 7 p.m. but didn’t start until about 9:30 p.m.

In the second game, the Knights scored a run in the top of the second when Mallory Helget scored on a groundout.

Rihana Roberts hit a two-run home run to center in the bottom of the third for the Eagles. A single to left field got past the left fielder and allowed two more runs to score and the Eagles led 4-1 at that point.

Trailing 4-2 with the bases loaded in the fourth, Anna Lux hit a fly ball to right, scoring all three runs to give the Knights a 5-4 lead. The Knights added another run on a Helget RBI.

New York Mills tied the game with two runs in the bottom of the fifth and grabbed the 7-6 lead on an infield single.

Roberts went the distance to earn the win. Lux took the loss for the Knights.

In the first game against Pillager, Anna Lux allowed just one hit and struck out 13 in a 7-1 win.

Ali Beltz set the tone early with a first inning home run. Beltz was 3 for 4 with three RBIs.

“[It felt] Awesome,” Beltz said. “It’s what our team needed. It got the nerves out a little bit and it just gave us some confidence knowing we could do this.”

The Knights added to the lead that inning when Helget singled and drove in Jody Hansen. That was more than enough run support for Lux.

Beltz, her catcher, was impressed.

“She’s looking good she’s pitching with some speed and she’s pretty accurate,” Beltz said.

Beltz drove in her second run of the game in the second inning when her RBI single scored Maddy Hoffman to give the Knights a 3-0 lead.

Pillager scored its only run in the fourth inning, but the Knights put the game away in the fifth inning by scoring four times.

Beltz and Kelsie Kosak added RBIs that inning and the Knights took advantage of a throwing error that scored two more runs.

“The girls need to continue with the confidence they have in the batter’s box,” coach Wendy Owens said after Game 1. “The defense did a nice job.”

Miranda Paananen took the loss. She went 4 2/3 innings and allowed seven runs on eight hits.

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