Staff photo by Jeremy Behnke New Ulm Cathedral shortstop Sarah Mohr fields a ground ball against Martin County West in the Section 2A playoffs Thursday at Harman Park.

NEW ULM — New Ulm Cathedral, the No. 1 seed, defeated Martin County West 23-5 in four innings on Thursday at Harman Park in the quarterfinals of the Section 2A softball tournament.

Cathedral’s Kiah Helget earned the win. She gave up five hits, struck out one and one walk.

The Mavericks struck first in the top of the first inning. Paige Anderson reached on a fielder’s choice and Emily Dunlop belted the ball over the left-center field fence for a two-run home run, giving MCW a 2-0 lead.

In the bottom of the first, Sarah Mohr reached on a walk and she scored the Greyhound’s first run when Helget walked. Helget scored later on a wild pitch to tie the game at 2-2. Cathedral scored three more runs talking advantage of MCW’s pitcher walking batters and its defense had two errors for a 5-2 Greyhound lead after one inning.

Cathedral continued its hot batting by scoring another four runs in the bottom of the second inning by putting together three singles and two doubles, making it 9-2 after two innings.

MCW wasn’t going away quietly. The Mavericks answered with three runs of their own in the third inning. MCW got two singles and three doubles to account for its runs cutting the Greyhound lead to 9-5.

Cathedral continued its scoring in the bottom of the third inning. MCW hurt itself when its pitcher hit Helget and Emily Schommer. Both scored and Lily Franta scored on a wild pitch for the Greyhound’s third run of the inning for a 12-5 score.

The Greyhounds pushed 11 runs across the plate in the bottom of the fourth inning. Cathedral had 13 players go to bat in the inning. There were five walks, six singles (including one bunt single), a double and one MCW error which all contributed to the final result.

Helget was 2 for 3 with a double, a walk and two RBIs and four runs. Jenna Hotovec was 2 for 3 with a double and three RBIs.

Cathedral (18-2) will play Springfield (16-5) at 10 a.m. on Saturday at Caswell Park in North Mankato. The Tigers are the No. 4 seed and they defeated Sleepy Eye Mary’s 7-2 on Thursday.