This year, however, they’re in the driver’s seat.

The No. 3-seeded Eagles were able to clinch a repeat section finals appearance by upsetting No. 1-seeded Mankato East 7-3 Saturday afternoon at Caswell Park.

Last year, the Eagles were routed by East 10-0 in the section semifinals, dropping them to an elimination bracket finals game against Marshall. After beating Marshall 1-0 to advance to a rematch with East in the section finals, the Eagles needed two wins to move on to state but fell short 2-1 to end their season.

The Eagles will now wait until Thursday to take on the winner of Tuesday’s elimination bracket finals game between No. 4-seeded St. Peter and East. St. Peter beat No. 2-seeded Mankato West 8-6 and No. 6-seeded Worthington 6-4 on Saturday to advance to Tuesday.

Staff photos by Travis Rosenau New Ulm catcher Gracie Baker, left, greets her pitcher Ramsey Hopp following a strikeout to end the inning during the Section 2AAA Softball Tournament semifinals game against Mankato East on Saturday at Caswell Park.

The Section 2AAA finals will begin at 5 p.m. Thursday at Caswell Park. A New Ulm win in that game advances the Eagles to the state tournament for the first time since 2015, while a loss triggers a second finals game Thursday night.

New Ulm didn’t forget about last year when they took the field Saturday as they were on their game in all areas and jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the third and 6-0 lead in the fifth.

Sparking New Ulm’s early lead was one of the younger players on the field in sophomore Gracie Baker, who led off the third with a double on a deep fly ball to center field.

“I feel honored to play with all of these seniors,” Baker said. “They’re amazing, I love what they do, I have full confidence in them. It’s just fun to pick it up for them.”

Baker’s double did indeed pick up her seniors, who returned the favor in a hurry. First up after Baker’s double was senior center fielder Maddie Backer, who dropped down a bunt to move Baker to third. On that bunt, East pitcher Kylinn Stangl bumped into her catcher Harper Stangl trying to pick up the ball, allowing Backer to take first and then second in the commotion.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm right fielder Mya Hornick prepares to throw a ball into the infield during the Section 2AAA Softball Tournament semifinals on Saturday at Caswell Park.

Another senior, second baseman Kenzie Enter, then bunted Baker in safely on a fielder’s choice where the Cougars threw home but couldn’t get a sliding Baker out. That allowed Enter to take first and Backer to move to third as the Eagles went up 1-0.

Still without an out in the inning, Eagles senior pitcher Ramsey Hopp kept the bunt party going with a sacrifice squeeze to score Backer for a 2-0 lead. A bunt by Lauren Schmiesing and a throwing error scored another run for New Ulm before Kylinn Stangl got a strikeout to inch closer to ending New Ulm’s big rally. Mya Hornick hit a hard grounder to third, which got past third baseman Jayda Swalve for another New Ulm run and a 4-0 lead.

Hornick’s swing of the bat was a sweet little bit of payback for earlier in the game, when she took a pitch off her right elbow that forced a pinch runner in for her during the second inning. Hornick put some ice on after that, returned to right field in the bottom of the second and finished the game.

Hopp pitched all seven innings in the win, allowing eight hits and seven walks for three earned runs while striking out nine. While it may not have been her best performance, Hopp allowed only one extra-base hit, a double in the fifth to Madeline Beaty. Hopp then saw East score two runs in a sixth inning thanks to four infield singles.

After the Cougars cut their deficit to 6-1 in the fifth on a bases-loaded groundout by Emily Hacker, the Eagles got another run in the bottom of the inning on an error.

The Cougars then got two runs back in the sixth. One of those sixth-inning runs came after a Hacker single that was stopped from leaving the infield by a diving Berkley Wilfahrt at third. Another infield single by Swalve was slowed down off the glove of Hopp to score a run and make it 7-3.

“They’re going to put the ball in play, they’re a good hitting team,” Hopp said. “There was some contact made, obviously they were fast, so they beat it out, but that’s what we want to do, we’re going to keep doing that.”

New Ulm went up 6-0 in the fourth after Baker walked and Backer was hit by a pitch to put two on with one out. After a flyout had two outs in the inning, Hopp sent a pitch deep to center field just out of reach of a jumping Beaty for a two-run double.

After aa 1-2-3 top of the seventh, New Ulm returned the favor with a 1-2-3 bottom of the inning, with an Enter-to-Bridgette Roiger putout at first ending the game.

Kylinn Stangl finished the complete game by allowing eight hits and two walks for four earned runs while striking out seven.

New Ulm had no errors in the game, while East committed three.

“Going up big is huge,” Hopp said. “But you never have that feeling that it’s done, like, the game’s never over, they can always come back, they’re going to keep coming back. They’re a very good ball team, and I think our defense just showed up today and, offensively, we just strung hits together. That’s all we needed to do.”

New Ulm was led at the plate by Backer, who finished 2 for 3 with two runs scored, while Schmiesing was 2 for 4 with two runs scored and Wilfahrt was 2 for 4 with a double.

Kenley Staunton and Beaty each went 2 for 4 to lead East at the plate.

The Eagles, and the right arm of Hopp in particular, will now get to enjoy a couple more days off from game action before the section finals in North Mankato Thursday.

“We’ve never put ourselves in this situation before,” Hopp said. “And I think we all kind of knew this was a big game today, and so to pull out and have a little rest time, everybody’s bodies can recover, I think that’s perfect for us.”

Baker said beating the top-seeded East was a confidence boost, but she knows regardless of who they play Thursday how important it will be to keep up their attack and energy.

“I’m confident enough, but I know that we can’t be too confident,” Baker said. “We’ve gotta just keep our energy up the whole game, that’s the most important thing. No matter how far we’re up, we’ve gotta know that they can always catch up.”