File photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm Cathedral’s Kiah Helget slides into home during a Section 2A Softball Tournament semifinals game with Martin County West on May 25 at Caswell Park in North Mankato.

NEW ULM — Having been ranked all year and finishing the season third in the Class A rankings, the New Ulm Cathedral Greyhounds softball team is not unfamiliar with having a bullseye on its back.

Now that bullseye has had another circle painted around it as the Greyhounds (23-2) earned the No. 1 seed in this year’s Class A State Softball Tournament, which begins Wednesday at Caswell Park in North Mankato.

The Greyhounds open the state tournament against the Kelliher/Northome Mustangs (19-3). The first-round matchup takes place at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday on Field 1.

Greyhounds head coach Jamie Kuehn said she was surprised to see her squad get the No. 1 seed as Red Lake Falls has been ranked No. 1 in the QRF rankings all season.

“One or two doesn’t matter, it means we get a nice draw for those teams at the bottom,” she said. “But, again, they made it to the state tournament, they’re going to be good and we have to come out and be ready for them and ready for whatever they bring.”

Greyhounds senior Jenna Hotovec said being the top seed gives the team a little confidence boost, but she also knows all the teams at state are there for a reason.

“Getting the No. 1 seed was a little unexpected for us and I feel like that gives us confidence a little bit knowing that,” Hotovec said. “But also, essentially, it’s kind of meaningless because we all made it to the state tournament and last year we were a random draw. I think it just kind of doesn’t mean as much because we’re all pretty even.”

The Greyhounds had to play one more game in the section tournament than they’d have liked to last Thursday after the United South Central Rebels defeated them 3-0 in the Section 2A Softball Tournament finals and forced a winner-take-all second game at Caswell Park. The Greyhounds, having not lost all tournament, watched USC hand them just their second loss this season.

Cathedral fell to Class AA Windom Area on May 4 in Windom.

Kuehn said her team knew defeating the Rebels wasn’t going to be easy after watching them play Springfield and Martin County West on May 28 in the elimination bracket semifinals and finals, respectively.

“I think we knew beating them the first game was going to be a tall task, we were all realistic about that,” Kuehn said. “Our girls had gone down on that Tuesday to watch them play Springfield and Martin County West. So they knew that they’d be facing a really good pitcher [Mariah Anderson], but they also noticed that as the second game went on against Martin County West, she kind of slowed down and became a little more hittable in their mind.

“So I think that second game, we maybe carried even more confidence into it just because we knew that this was the time that we had to do it, it was do or die, and that we felt that we had the best opportunity to do it based on what we saw on that Tuesday.”

USC, the winner of the 2A elimination bracket and needing to beat Cathedral twice Thursday to earn a trip to state, seemed to have momentum on its side after its shutout win forced a second finals game.

The Greyhounds had other plans in mind.

Not only did the Greyhounds return the shutout by defeating USC 4-0 in that second finals game, they did it behind a complete-game no-hitter from seventh-grade pitcher Jayde Altermatt.

“We’ve always said Jayde has ice in her veins,” Kuehn said. “I think she’s a little more nervous when she has to start a first game. Like the Springfield [playoff] game [on May 25], we saw her give up those four runs in the first two innings, so it takes her a little while to sink in when she has to start. But watching Abbey [Hillesheim] go that first game and her just seeing that confidence with how their hitters were struggling with Abbey, and knowing that she was going to go in there as a completely different type of pitcher than Abbey and just be as effective, I think she knew that going in just because she got to watch seven innings of Abbey.

“So it’s nice knowing that Jayde has that confidence and knowing that she can step up in those big moments. We’ve kind of been putting her into more and more high-pressure situations as the season goes on just so we can test her abilities, and she proved more than up to the task on Thursday.”

USC ended the regular season ranked second in Class A and finished the year 23-3.

Altermatt has split the pitching duties this season with Hillesheim, a sophomore. Altermatt has a 1.64 ERA to go with 62 strikeouts, 43 hits allowed and 21 walks allowed in 55 2/3 innings. In 79 2/3 innings, Hillesheim has an ERA of 2.20 while striking out 54 and allowing 79 hits and 22 walks.

Now the Greyhounds turn their attention to a new foe in Kelliher/Northome.

Kelliher/Northome, a team stationed nearly 300 miles north of New Ulm in Beltrami County, won the Section 5A Softball Tournament on May 30 with a pair of finals wins over Sebaka in Walker. The Mustangs will be making their state tournament debut.

Meanwhile, the Greyhounds will be entering the state tournament for the 19th time, having won the championships seven times.

Senior Kiah Helget leads the Greyhounds at the plate this season with a .447 batting average, five home runs, 10 doubles, three triples and 34 RBIs. Hotovec leads the team in homers (7) and RBIs (48) and is hitting .372.

The Greyhounds hit .294 as a team last year and are hitting .344 this year.

Hotovec is just one bat back in full swing this season after hitting .261 a year ago.

“This year I tried not to focus on it as much, I just went out and played,” Hotovec said. “I didn’t really worry about the stats, worry about how many hits a game I was getting and I think that definitely helped with the mental side of it.”

Helget said being patient at the plate has been big in the team’s improved hitting from last season.

“I think this year we’ve done a lot better job of getting deeper in the count and understanding that we’re probably only going to see one or two really good pitches in the entire at-bat,” Helget said. “So, we have done a lot better job at waiting for our pitch and knowing what we like to see and what we don’t like to see and just kind of just taking advantage of that strike that we like.”

Also for Cathedral, junior catcher Jaylin Hartness is hitting .365, while senior second baseman Alexa Hornick is hitting .328.

Senior third baseman Waabi Wagner leads the Mustangs this year with a .586 batting average to go with seven doubles, three triples and 22 RBIs. Eighth-grade pitcher/shortstop Kate Thayer leads the power department for the Mustangs with five homers to go with a .439 batting average, while sophomore pitcher/shortstop Kylee Binkley is hitting .437 with two homers.

In the circle, Binkley is the Mustangs’ go-to pitcher with 105 1/3 innings pitched. She has a 2.86 ERA and has allowed 96 hits and 50 walks while striking out 86. Thayer has pitched 35 2/3 innings this season, turning in a 1.57 ERA with 53 strikeouts.

While the Greyhounds have been given the top seed and are positioned to take home another state championship, overconfidence can spoil a season fast.

“We were ranked No. 1 going into sections,” Helget said. “So I think we did a really good job of — we talked about how we knew that we could easily lose to USC and we did. So I think that kind of proved to us that even though we’re No. 1, it doesn’t mean we’re necessarily going to be better than everyone else, so we definitely have to take that into consideration. … We know that everybody has made it to state now and these are the top eight teams. And it’s just going to keep getting harder as we move on.”

Kuehn said she and her coaching staff have been telling the players not to get too far ahead and not to overlook any team. For example, Randolph, last year’s top seed at state, lost in the opening round to unseeded Upsala.

“We tell them to look at Randolph last year,” Kuehn said. “Randolph went in as the No. 1 seed and ended up taking fifth place because they lost that first game to an unranked team. It’s definitely something that can happen and something that we’re trying to impress upon these girls that nobody at this state is somebody you can just overlook. We have to bring our ‘A’ game every single inning, every single pitch and be ready for anything.”