Cathedral survives battle with Springfield

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau
Springfield’s Brooklyn Sturm runs off of first behind New Ulm Cathedral’s Madelyn Haala during the first inning of a Tomahawk Conference softball game Thursday at Harmon Park in New Ulm.

NEW ULM — If it feels like playoffs are just around the corner, the New Ulm Cathedral Greyhounds and Springfield Tigers made that even more clear Thursday at Harmon Park.

A potential Section 2A playoff preview and back-and-forth Tomahawk Conference softball game ended Thursday with the Greyhounds earning an 8-5 win.

The Greyhounds already clinched the conference title with a sweep of Minnesota Valley Lutheran on May 1, but they ended their conference schedule Thursday with a perfect 14-0 record. They are now 16-1 overall on the year and ranked second in Class A.

While it took some late-game heroics and a few miscues by the Tigers in the sixth to pull out the victory, the win was another feather in the Greyhounds’ caps.

“We knew that the first game we played them [this season] when we beat them 9-3 was an anomaly and that they were going to come at us with everything they had this time,” Cathedral head coach Jamie Kuehn said. “We needed to match that and bring ur very best game. I don’t know that we brought that because we had some errors, but we definitely are tenacious and determined and it’s tough to make us go away.”

After the Tigers tied the game at 5-all in the fourth on an RBI single to center by Brooklyn Sturm, both teams locked in defensively until the sixth when the Greyhounds made a run.

In the bottom of the sixth, a one-out single by Margo Finstad and throwing error from left field allowed Finstad to reach second. Then an error on a drop in right field allowed Jayde Altermatt to reach first and put two on.

Ava Krueger ran for Altermatt and a delayed double steal allowed Finstad to come home and put the Greyhounds up 6-5. An RBI triple to left by Ava Brennan brought another run in before a walk to Ava Schmid was followed with a sac fly by Kiah Helget to center to score Brennan for the 8-5 lead.

Altermatt, who also pitched four innings in relief to earn the win, retired the side 1-2-3 to end the game. Altermatt, a seventh-grader, finished the game allowing just two hits and two walks while striking out three.

She entered in relief of Abbey Hillesheim, who allowed four unearned runs on five hits, a walk and a hit batter. Hillesheim struck out one.

“We always say Jayde has ice in her veins because it didn’t seem to matter what she’s got going on, she’s going to go out there and throw some strikes,” Kuehn said. “Her and Abbey are a good one-two punch. They have a different delivery, they have a different approach to how they pitch and they throw different pitches and it’s great that we can go from one to the other and maybe back again and just keep hitters on their toes and not sure what to expect from either one of them. Nice to have them.”

Jalivia Richert pitched six innings in the loss, allowing 12 hits and two walks for six earned runs while striking out one.

Richert gave up four hits in the first inning, but the Greyhounds ran into trouble on an attempt to take home from third for the second out. Jaylin Hartness singled to bring in a run that inning, but she was caught stealing to end the inning and minimize the damage.

After an RBI single by Rachel Beadell in the third tied the game, Jasmine Novotny had a three-run homer to center to put the Tigers up 4-1. That lead didn’t last long, however, as the Greyhounds had a five-hit inning in the bottom of the fourth to score four runs, led by RBI singles from Jenna Hotovec and Alexa Hornick.

“I think overall it was a great game,” Tigers head coach Katie Wilhelmi said. “We had some big plays when we needed them, we came up with a lot of hits and strung a few together, we just need to finish strong and finish our games.”

Hartness led Cathedral the plate with a 2-for-3 performance, while Brennan was 2 for 4 with her RBI triple and Hotovec was 2 for 4.

Novotny led the Tigers at the plate with her homer, going 2 for 3 with three RBIs, while Beadell went 2 for 3 with an RBI and Sturm was 2 for 4 with an RBI.

The Tigers, now 11-7 overall, wrapped up their conference schedule with a 9-5 mark. But if Thursday showed anything, it was how tough the upcoming section tournament has the potential to be.

“I think this has always been a strong section, it’s always been a strong conference,” Wilhelmi said. “It just shows that we can battle with anybody, now we just need to find a way to get it done when it counts.”

Cathedral hosts Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton at 4:30 p.m. Friday, while Springfield hosts Windom Area at 5 p.m. on Monday.