Greyhounds muscle way past St. Mary's

Cathedral retains tie for top of conference

By JEREMY BEHNKE

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- It wasn't what the New Ulm Cathedral softball team did in the first two innings that was so impressive.

It was what the Greyhounds managed to do in the third through fifth innings that showed why they shared the Tomahawk Conference softball title with Wabasso after they defeated Sleepy Eye St. Mary's 11-1 in the regular season finale Thursday at Harman Park.

The Greyhounds scored eight runs on seven hits in the middle three innings, including three doubles in that span.

St. Mary's, the No. 2 seed in the Section 2A-North Division, scored the first run of the game after Amanda Helget walked and scored on Casie Schumacher's single to center. The Knights stranded two runners in the first and seven in the game.

"We did not hit the ball the way we needed to hit the ball," St. Mary's coach Wendy Berg said. "They hit the ball very well and we erred when we should not have erred. But give them credit. They hit the ball nice tonight."

The Greyhounds scored in the bottom half of the inning when Kelly Kuehn scored on a sacrifice fly from Nikki Fischer to center field.

"The first inning is important to get things going and get your team on a roll," Nikki Fischer said. "When they got that first run, I don't think we got down on ourselves. We knew that we had to come back and beat a good team."

The Greyhounds added another run in the second after Katie Gieseke scored. Gieseke doubled and took third on a wild pitch. She scored on Kyley Hillesheim's infield bunt single.

"We executed well today," Cathedral coach Bob Mertz said. "That's one thing that we needed to do here as we get into the next step. The competition from here on gets better, and you're not going to get 10 runs. You'll probably only get two or three, so you gotta make the plays stand out."

The Greyhounds offense stepped up in the bottom of the third. Fischer doubled and scored on Shelly Waibel's double. Waibel stole third and scored on a wild pitch to make it 4-1.

"I think everyone wanted to hit," Fischer said. "They wanted to prove themselves today and they did."

Fischer finished 2-for-3 with two runs scored and an RBI. Waibel scored twice as she went 3-for-4 with two RBIs.

The Greyhounds scored three more runs in the fourth. Julie Seifert doubled home Liesl Genelin and Fischer to help her own cause on the mound.

Seifert scored on another hit by Waibel, this time a single, to make it 7-1.

Melissa Kraus, Hillesheim and Kuehn all scored in the bottom of the fifth to give the Greyhounds a 10-1 lead. Cathedral won the game in the sixth after Waibel scored on Kraus' single.

In the "B" game, Cathedral won 4-3. Katie Stueber gave up nine hits and struck out none. Holly Helget doubled and had two RBIs. Cathedral ends the season 18-1.

The "C" (12-6) lost 4-1 to St. Mary's. Megan Schwartz took the loss. Molly Boyle 3-3 with 2 doubles and a triple.

St. Mary's (12-8) hosts Nicollet Thursday in the first round of the Section 2A, North-Subsection playoffs.

Cathedral (17-3, 14-2) is the No. 1 seed in the Section 2A, North Subsection and will face the winner of Buffalo Lake-Hector and McLeod West in the first round.