Cathedral edges Indians

By JEREMY BEHNKE

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Sleepy Eye played New Ulm Cathedral about as tough as team can, but the Greyhounds held off a late rally and defeated the Indians 5-4 Monday in prep softball action at Harman Park.

Julie Seifert got the win, striking out six and allowing 10 hits in seven innings. Nicole Krebs took the loss. She gave up seven hits and struck out six.

Nikki Fischer and Katie Stueber went 2-for-3 and each scored a run.

"Defense I think pretty much won this game," Fischer said. "Everybody was up to par, even though we had some ball get past us, we really brought it up."

Seifert scored the first run of the game after Fischer singled to center, scoring Seifert from second.

The Greyhounds tacked on two more in the second inning after Kirsten Prunty walked and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt. Stueber's single to right scored Prunty. Stueber later stole home to give the Greyhounds a 3-0 lead.

The Indians' bats warmed up to Seifert in the fifth inning. Ashley Roiger, who went 3-for-4 with two runs scored, hit a one-out single. Allie Deibele followed with a walk and Sleepy Eye scored its first run of the game on Courtney Hammerschmidt's triple to left field that got past Cathedral leftfielder Becky Hosna.

"We're definitely pleased with the way we swung the bat," Sleepy Eye coach Cory Haala said. "We left a few runners stranded and they maybe had one error. Overall they played a little bit better defense."

Jessie Zuhlsdorf's double to right over the head of Stueber scored Hammerschmidt, tying the score at 3-3.

"They hit the ball well, and I told Jessica [Stadick] after the first time through the lineup that we needed to start throwing the change more often, but she wasn't throwing enough, and they were just teeing off on her," Cathedral coach Bob Mertz.

Cathedral scored two runs in the bottom of the fifth. Mandy Domeier scored when Hosna hit a grounder to short and Sleepy Eye shortstop Kristi Schieffert threw it away. Hosna later scored when Fischer lined a single to center to put the Greyhounds up 5-3.

Roiger scored the final run of the game in the top of the seventh after Schieffert singled to left. Schieffert finished with two hits, along with Zuhlsdorf.

"Defensively I thought we played pretty well, with it still being early in the season yet," Mertz said. "But I didn't think we swung at a lot of good pitches. Our slappers are swinging at some bad pitches -- we need to get them on. Our one and two aren't getting on, and that sets the table for us."

The Cathedral "B" squad won 13-3. Sara Berg was the winning pitcher, striking out 13. Meghan Schwartz had two triples and two RBI and Kayla Larson had a double and two RBIs.

Cathedral also won the "C" game 19-1. Tracey Hillesheim had seven strikeouts. Sam Dengerud and Megan Forst each had a home run.

Sleepy Eye (2-1) is at Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop today and Cathedral is at Minnesota Valley Lutheran.