Gieseke hit sends NUC to championship

By JEREMY BEHNKE

Journal Sports Writer

NORTH MANKATO -- With two outs and a runner on third in a tied ballgame, New Ulm Cathedral's Katie Gieseke approached the plate in the bottom of the sixth in probably what was her biggest at-bat of the season.

Gieseke, who had gone hitless in five at-bats on the day, determined her team's fate and sent the Greyhounds into today's championship game when she lined a shot off St. Bernard's pitcher Andrea Fahey into center, scoring Julie Seifert to give the Greyhounds a 3-2 lead. The Greyhounds held on to win after Seifert gave up a one-out double in the seventh, but retired the next two hitters.

Cathedral will play Brandon/Evansville at 5 p.m. in today's title game at Caswell Park.

"I was due," Gieseke said. "I was struggling all day, so I had to come through with the big hit and I did. I was looking for somewhere to go hard and solid, so I did."

Cathedral took a 1-0 lead in the semifinal game after Kyley Hillesheim started the bottom of the third with a hit, her fourth on the afternoon. Hillesheim gave the Greyhounds every chance she could to score after she stole two bases, and scored the game's first run on a wild pitch.

The Greyhounds kept the momentum going in the fourth inning after Jessica Stadick reached first when St. Bernard's second baseman Nichole Tischler dropped a pop-up. Courtesy runner Chelsey Beranek stole second and third and scored when St. Bernard's catcher Libby Nelson threw the ball into left trying to throw her out at third.

St. Bernard's had a key opportunity in the top of the third when Andrea Cosetta hit a towering drive to deep right, but Cathedral right fielder Shelly Waibel made a diving catch over her head that kept her off base.

"She made a big play like that in the subsection championship against Sleepy Eye St. Mary's," Cathedral coach Bob Mertz said. "It was an awesome catch, but this thing was even better than that."

Cathedral made another big defensive play in the fourth after a Rachel Flaherty single with one out. Next, Laura Tischler bunted but was thrown out at first. Cathedral second baseman Liesl Genelin then alertly fired to third to get Flaherty for the double play.

"That first-to-third double play was a big double play, and I think that kind of shocked them a little bit," Mertz said. "I don't think they thought we were as good as we were."

St. Bernard's finally got to Seifert in the fifth inning when Meghan Bohland single and Molly Kroona reached on an error. Then, with the bases loaded, Stephanie Clemens hit a soft line drive to center that fell in front of Hillesheim to make it 2-1. Kroona later scored when Jackie O'Neill hit a ground ball to short. Nikki Fischer had no chance to throw Kroona out at home and the Bulldogs tied it 2-2. Seifert retired Libby Nelson on a grounder to second to end the threat.

"That inning was pretty shaky, but we came right back because we never give up," Hillesheim said. "We're going all the way."

"I was a little worried that they'd go for more," Mertz said. "They had a good chance to get a big hit, but it didn't happen."

Seifert gave herself the chance to score the winning run when she led-off the sixth with a double to left. She took third on a grounder to second and scored with two outs courtesy of Gieseke.

"We did get a little nervous in a few innings, but we just tried to get back to smile and have fun and cheer everyone on like we usually do," Gieseke said.

St. Bernard's provided some drama in the top of the seventh after Ashley Tischler came in off the bench and lined a single to deep center. Seifert retired the next two hitters on infield pop-ups to send Cathedral to the title game. Seifert stuck out four and allowed seven hits. Cathedral had four hits in the second game.

Cathedral defeated Isle 9-2 in the quarterfinals as the Greyhounds attacked with nine hits. Isle committed eight errors.

"We did a lot of good things early and our slappers were getting on," Mertz said. "We did things that they thought we'd do, but they could not stop us."

Hillesheim paced the attack with three hits and two runs scored. Kelly Kuehn went 2-for-3 with two runs scored and two RBIs. Seifert went 2-for-2 and Fischer had two RBIs.

Seifert got the win, striking out three and allowing one hit over four innings. Sam Bode pitched the final three innings, striking out three and giving up four hits and two runs.