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Mankato West ends New Ulm’s season

Staff photo by Steve Muscatello New Ulm’s Joey Batt starts to run to first after making contact with a pitch during the Eagles’ Section 2AAA playoff game Wednesday at Caswell Park in North Mankato.

NORTH MANKATO — The numbers 17 and 6 stood out on Thursday at Caswell Park.

Mankato West defeated New Ulm 17-6 in six innings. The loss ended New Ulm’s season at 17-6. West improved to 17-6 and will play for the Section 2AAA championship at 5 p.m. on Thursday against Faribault.

West scored eight runs in the fifth inning and nine runs in the sixth inning after trailing 3-0 early.

For the second straight year, Mankato West ended New Ulm’s softball season, this time in an elimination bracket game. Errors hurt the Eagles in the contest and West hit the ball hard all game.

Last year, the Scarlets defeated New Ulm for the Section 3AA championship. The Eagles defeated West twice this year, including last Thursday in the second round of the tournament.

Ashlyn Donner took the season-ending loss for the Eagles. She pitched all six innings.

The Eagles scored three times in the bottom of the third inning on four hits. Carli Botten drove in two runs when she doubled to score Ellie Bute and Joey Batt. Botten later scored on a swinging bunt by Kaila Brudelie to put the Eagles up 3-0.

But the Scarlets scored eight runs in the fifth after Bri Stoltzman singled. Her courtesy runner Liz Meidl eventually got to third thanks to a couple of wild pitches. She scored on a bunt after the Eagles got her in a rundown but were unable to tag her out.

Later in the inning, Jalissa Stoltzman tripled to score two runs and the Kenzie Grunst put an exclamation point on the inning with a solo home run to deep center to give West a 6-3 lead.

The inning kept getting worse for New Ulm after Bri Stoltzman reached on an infield single that scored two more runs to put the Scarlets ahead 8-3.

The Eagles got three runs back in the bottom of the fifth after Bute, Batt and Brudelie all scored in the inning, with Brudelie picking up an RBI.

The Scarlets continued to hit the ball hard in the sixth, scoring nine more times. Jalissa Stoltzman connected with a two-run home run to go up 11-6 as the Eagles gave up extra outs in the inning. West got another run after a throwing error made it 12-6 and a two-run single made it 14-6. Holly Wiste added another two-run double for the 16-6 margin and West scored again for the final run of the game.

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