NORTH MANKATO — After falling to Nicollet earlier in the day, New Ulm Cathedral bounced back with a 7-1 win over Sleepy Eye in the second round of the Section 2A Softball Tournament elimination bracket Tuesday at Caswell Park.

Jayde Altermatt earned the win for the Greyhounds, going six innings and allowing four hits and a walk for one earned run while striking out 12. Avery Fischer pitched the seventh, allowing just one hit while striking out three.

Greyhounds head coach Jamie Kuehn said the loss to Nicollet was due to a slow start and stranding too many runners on base. That was not the case against Sleepy Eye.

“You could tell both pitchers, Jayde and Berkner, were tired,” Kuehn said. “But I thought our bats were just a lot better and we didn’t have that same slow start we did against Nicollet. We jumped on that right away and were able to score in the first inning.”

Staff photo By Ari Selvey New Ulm Cathedral's Ava Schmid fields a fly ball during a Section 2A Softball Tournament game against Nicollet Saturday at Caswell Park.

Taylor Berkner pitched six innings in the loss, allowing five hits and three walks for seven runs, two earned, while striking out four.

The Greyhounds jumped out to a 5-0 lead, getting on the board in the first inning with a two-run single by Margo Finstad. A two-run double by Altermatt and an RBI single by Finstad made it 5-0 in the second.

Berkner put a pitch over the fence in center field in the fourth to make it a 5-1 game, but the Greyhounds got that run and another in the bottom of the fifth on a two-run double by Brynn Wilfahrt, who led the way for Cathedral by going 2 for 3 with two doubles. Morgan Beranek, Altermatt and Leah Wilson also each had a hit for the Greyhounds in the win.

Megan Sellner led the Sleepy Eye bats, going 2 for 3, while Berkner, Madison Seifert and Jaelynn Schauman each had a hit.

Sleepy Eye ended its season 16-8 with the loss.

Staff photo By Ari Selvey Sleepy Eye's Lexi Hoffman begins her run off of second base during a Section 2A Softball Tournament game against Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton Saturday at Caswell Park.

Cathedral, now 22-5, plays second-seeded United South Central next in a Section 2A elimination game at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Caswell Park. The winner moves on to play Nicollet at approximately 7 p.m. that night in the elimination finals, with the winner there moving on to the section finals Thursday.

Kuehn said her team has been preparing to take on USC and its star pitcher Mariah Anderson, the state’s career strikeouts leader, at some point in the playoffs.

“We’ve been prepping to face USC or Martin County West kind of the whole last three weeks, so I think we’re as ready as we’re ever going to be,” Kuehn said. “We just say, ‘Get up there ready to swing, she’s gonna throw strikes. Not a lot of good strikes, but you’ve gotta be able to hit the best strikes she’s going to give you.'”

SLEEPY EYE 10, JWP 9

NORTH MANKATO — Earlier on Saturday, fifth-seeded Sleepy Eye walked off eighth-seeded Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton 10-9 in the first round of the Section 2A Softball Tournament elimination bracket Tuesday.

Sleepy Eye scored four runs in the seventh inning, with the final two coming on hit-by-pitches with bases loaded. Jace Schauman earned the final RBI of the game.

Taylor Berkner earned the win for the Indians, striking out seven and allowing seven earned runs on seven hits and two walks. At the plate, Callie Evers was 2 for 4 with a home run, three RBIs and two runs scored, while Schauman was 2 for 4 with a home run, two RBIs and two runs scored. Kenley Jensen and Megan Sellner each had two hits, while Berkner had a home run to start the scoring in the seventh inning.