trosenau@nujournal.com

NEW ULM — Behind the arm of Jayde Altermatt and some timely hitting, the New Ulm Cathedral Greyhounds took down undefeated Sleepy Eye on Monday in a Tomahawk Division softball game at Harman Park.

Altermatt pitched the complete game and struck out 12 in the win, allowing five hits, three walks and a hit batter for two earned runs.

The Greyhounds collected seven hits, three coming in a key third inning that put them ahead 3-2. Cathedral also took advantage of some Sleepy Eye errors in that third inning which led to two runs being unearned. Another unearned run came in the fifth for the Greyhounds’ final run of the game.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm Cathedral’s Abbey Hillesheim tags out Sleepy Eye’s Taylor Berkner at second during a Tomahawk Division softball game Monday at Harman Park.

Taylor Berkner took the loss in all seven innings for Sleepy Eye, allowing two earned runs on seven hits, one walk and one hit batter. She struck out six.

The Greyhounds, who started the year with back-to-back losses to Cleveland and Wabasso, won their fifth game in a row Monday. The win also ended Sleepy Eye’s 6-0 unbeaten streak to start the season.

“I feel like we had a couple learning things from our first couple of games,” Altermatt said. “We learned from them and now we’re getting better and now we know how to work with each other better.”

Sleepy Eye took a 2-0 lead in the top of the third after Paige Haala singled and swiped second before scoring on an RBI single to center by Callie Evers. Evers then scored when Berkner lined a single to left, but Berkner was tagged out by Abbey Hillesheim trying to take second for the third out.

Cathedral answered back right away in the bottom of the inning to take the lead. First came a leadoff double from Altermatt. Despite being the No. 9 hitter, Altermatt said she didn’t care where she was hitting in the lineup.

“I don’t think it matters to me,” Altermatt said. “I think every batting spot matters no matter what and everything’s important in the game.”

That double was very important to say the least and it was followed with an error on a throw that pulled the first baseman off of first, allowing Ava Brennan to reach first safely and Altermatt to advance to third. Brennan moved up on a passed ball before Ashlyn Hillesheim doubled in both Altermatt and Brennan to tie the game.

Ashlyn Hillesheim advanced to third on a wild pitch before Ava Schmid grounded out to score her and make it 3-2.

Getting that lead back right away have Altermatt confidence and allowed her an opportunity to settle in and focus on her rise ball, which she said was working best for her on the outside corners.

“It gave me a lot of confidence, but I knew our team is one of the teams that can come back,” Altermatt said. “We always learn from what we need to work on and our bench and everything impacts us to be the better team.”

The Greyhounds got two more runs in the fifth after Jaylin Hartness, who went 2 for 4 in the game, reached on a single and was advanced to second on a single by Margo Finstad. A groundout followed before a walk to Abbey Hillesheim filled the bases and an RBI single by Brynn Wilfahrt made it 4-2. An error at third allowed Altermatt to reach and Finstad to score and a wild pitch that was gathered by catcher Jace Schauman and thrown to Berkner at home to tag out a sliding Abbey Hillesheim.

Sleepy Eye ended up getting a leadoff single from its No. 9 hitter Megan Sellner in the seventh, but a strikeout was followed with a pop out to center and throw to first for the game-ending double play.

Evers led the Sleepy Eye bats, going 2 for 3 with her RBI and run scored.

“I thought Taylor pitched well enough to win,” Sleepy Eye head coach Cory Haala said. “Unfortunately our defense let us down a little bit today. The fielding conditions, the field was a little bit harder and faster today and we haven’t seen that all spring and that made a little bit of a difference. But they put the ball in play as well and we just can’t have that many mistakes against a good team like them.

“Altermatt did a nice job, great job pitching, we’ve got to do a better job trying to put the ball in play. They probably had zero errors, they made a few double plays on us, but we were just the opposite. Just those little details, good teams, that’s going to make a difference. We’ve got to move on, tomorrow’s another game.”

Sleepy Eye (6-1, 4-1) hosts Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop for a doubleheader on Tuesday, while Cathedral (5-2, 4-1) is at Nicollet for a Tomahawk-Valley crossover game Tuesday.